Over a year ago, my husband stumbled upon a way to defeat Satan’s schemes by dealing his porn addiction a final blow! In October of last year, after he confessed to me the journey he was on, I started a journey into learning about the image of God in my own body. I’ve done a lot of study of scripture and reading books written on the subject and talking with people who have been on this journey longer than I have. It’s been a combination of very scary and so enlightening and liberating!
This summer my husband and I joined 5 other Christian couples at a villa in Florida. We were putting the things we have learned over the last several months to the test. We were about to find out if ethical naturism could really be a thing in our lives.
These couples all believe in our bodies as the image of God. We all believe in treating people with dignity and respect.
We all believe in monogamous marriage relationships. This is a group of married Christians who believe that non-sexual nudity can be experienced with others of like mind without it causing any of us to fall into sin. Last year I would have thought this was crazy! “NO WAY! That’s not possible! Oh my gosh, those sinners!! I’m too insecure! Everyone will be thinner than me! I don’t look good naked! No way I’m gonna let my husband see other naked women who have better bodies than me!” I would have said, “I will never do that!” Actually, I think the phrase I used with my husband regarding going to a nude beach was, “NOT IN A MILLION YEARS!” Oh and we did that too and it was awesome! At the beach, I had my sunglasses on and the 2nd or 3rd wave knocked them off my head and the ocean took them!
It’s as if God was saying, “No, you won’t wear anything this time, enjoy it as I created you!”
There was a lot of anxiety going into this week, even though I was excited to get away from the craziness of life for a bit. When we arrived at the villa after grocery shopping and putting everything away, it was time to cool off in the pool. I took a deep breath, took off my clothes, grabbed my towel and headed out to the pool where some of the others had gathered. It was weird at first because it was new. It didn’t take long though to embrace the feeling of the water on my bare skin without a tight bathing suit clinging to me. Actually, it was an amazing feeling!! After a while, I climbed into the hot tub with about 5 others and we began to talk.
I can honestly say the conversations we had have been some of the most open and honest and amazing conversations I’ve ever had in my life!
You know what I haven’t experienced? I haven’t experienced anyone acting inappropriately. I haven’t experienced anyone staring or gawking. Am I the skinny one here, no? Do I feel insecure about who I am and what I look like? Maybe a little bit if I stop and think about it too much, but as a general feeling, I am not even noticing it! I’m just enjoying the pool and laying out working on my tan free of tan lines. I’m cooking breakfast nude and eating it around the table with 11 other nude bodies. We are playing games and laughing and studying scripture and praying together and living out Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
We are learning about the Lord from each other and having a great time in the process!
I learned this week that being naked with others of like mind, not only physically but emotionally, spiritually, and mentally is nothing short of amazing! Literally nothing to hide! I never felt like I had to stop myself from saying something I wanted to say because of how it might be perceived. We spoke our minds and our hearts. We let God speak through us and to us. We were relaxed in the skin we were in.
Never in my life have I felt so confident! Even fully clothed!
Aching for Eden 
It is great to find your site and read of your life. I agree with your comments and like to add, it is not what we wear or dress ourselves in, it is the condition of our heart that God is interested in, as we read in the book of Samuel. I also prefer to have sun on my bare body,whenever possible which is most of the time now. Keep up the great work.
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We’re glad you found the site too! I didn’t realize how much I looked at the outward appearance and ignored the heart of someone until I stopped focusing on it. And yes, we prefer the sun on our bare bodies too! 😁 Thanks for your comment!
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I’m so glad that I found your blog, after seeing it on naturistchrisitian.org. I rejoice in the journey you both are own together. But I feel an overwhelming sadness, that after more than 12 years, my wife will not budge on this issue. I too was set free of pornography through naturism. She knows this, and has seen the results, but still refuses to accept it. At times we have been so close to ending our marriage, that I’m scared more than I can describe. I’ve thought many times of giving up this freedom, but I can’t unlearned what I know. I recently met another wonderful Christian couple at a nearby resort and I know they are lifting my wife up in prayer. I’ve been praying for her heart to be opened but it seems to become more closed with each day. Sorry, didn’t mean to make this comment about me. Keep up the great work. I loved your husbands blog on Romans, and plan on using it as a tool when I’m finally prepared to go public with this.
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Thank you for your comment! We praise the Lord for setting you free from the chains of pornography! 🙌🏻 I am saddened for you that your wife refuses to accept naturism, but even more, I am saddened for her! There is so much freedom that comes with naturism and it goes WAY beyond the physical. I have it on my heart to write a post geared toward women about following their husbands on this path. Please pray for me as I process what I believe the Lord wants me to say in that post. We will be in prayer for your wife. Thank you for your encouragement!
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This is good to know. It is a freeing experience. Clothes are restricting and uncomfortable. But water and my body are beautiful in the water.
I also think it puts nothing between us as we converse. No Aires Or preconceived judgement of another person. I love this. Keep it up.
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Hi Mrs Phil
WOAH! Further to our previous email/communication, things have progressed pretty quickly.
I took your advice and told Gayle about me joining the ‘just nudism’ site. She was surprised, and said it was “a step too far for me (her) at the moment” (but I took a lot of encouragement that she said “at the moment” rather than “never”). However, I’m not 100% sure about the JN site, there seems to be some lovely genuine people who are solely focused on genuine nudism, and I have no doubt God used that site to enable Michelle and I to meet and develop a genuine brother/sister in Christ relationship, but I’m not sure about a lot of the motives of a lot of members when reading comments. The site has a “christian nudists” group, but from reading their profiles, again, I’m not convinced about the motives of some on it. Michelle is REALLY keen to talk to Gayle, and although Gayle hasn’t ruled that out, she said “Not at the moment, I’ve got a lot to digest”.
I’m going to give the article “to wives” from Aching for Eden to Gayle to read. Gayle has said that “I don’t want anyone except you to see me naked”. I was Praying and asked God why she thinks that, and immediately he said “Have you asked her?” (i was like, “um, no, i kinda felt more comfy asking you than her” 😀 ) So I will do that as well.
I also told Gayle that I had recently put music on and danced naked before the Lord (a VERY poor dancing display, but heart in the right place 🙂 . That shocked her more than the JN site disclosure! Not in a bad way, but she was like “Really? That’s SO unlike you, I’ve never been able to get you to dance normally with clothes on, let alone naked for God” 🙂 I told her that initially I was surprised I was doing it myself, it just happened when I was Praying and worshipping one day. (Hence her comment “I’ve got a lot to digest”, I told her that the same night as I told her about the JN site)
I’m starting to feel pretty comfortable with naturism now but still have periods of “am i really on the right track here”. I read all the posts in the Aching for Eden site, and that helped a lot. And discovering that Baptisms were originally done naked was a massive turning point in my mind. That completely shifted the goalposts.
I have been amazed how Gayle has started initiating sitting outside our new house on the patio naked. It’s basically private, there is some potential for a neighbor to see if they were outside and got the right angle of sight through the fence slats, but chances are we would hear them coming first anyway, but it’s a risk that G would previously NEVER have taken in our previous house which had a similar “danger risk”.
There was also an incident at Church where Gayle was showing her friend pictures of our house, scanned one pic too many, and a pic of both of us naked together which we took with a timer while we were in a secluded bush area came up! What stunned me when she came up to me and told me what happened about a minute later, was her reaction- or lack of it. She said ‘That was SO embarassing, but not in a tone that was hugely upset, dare I say it- more of a ‘oh dear, that was awkward, but whatever’. I was stunned because previously G would’ve been VERY upset and wanted to avoid Yvette for a while afterwards. (Don’t worry, Yvette seems to be her normal self, and still talks to us just as she would’ve previously, no signs of emotional trauma or counselling 😀 ) And Gayle is still wanting to go to similar secluded places to be naked together, but not with others seeing).
Lastly, when Gayle first started getting naked with me in secluded bush areas, she said “I’m doing this because you like it, not because I’m into it- it’s not my thing”. BUT, lately she has instigated being naked while working around the house, cooking etc and smiled and joked to me “you’ve turned me into a brazen rudie”. (I disagree with the ‘brazen’ bit- that’s the last word that would ever describe her!!).
So all these things indicate to me that God is on the move in both of us. If one or two of these had happened, I may’ve thought it was a co-incidence, or wishful thinking on my part that Gayle is clearly starting to follow my footprints on this journey. But looking at them all together, to me it’s clear the wheels on our journey to being completely free, are turning (and because we’re moving forward, not because the wheels are stuck in the mud 😀).
My peace about it is a LOT more than it was, but i still don’t feel 100% convinced, i think it’s a matter of continuing to seek God about it. Gayle still has a lot of body image things which I suspect is why she doesn’t want others to see her (yet 🙂 ) but she has certainly come a long way.
Thanks SO much for the articles and Aching for Eden link. They have helped sooo much.
The journey continues…
Blessings
Mark
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How did you meet other couples, and how did you know you could trust them?
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