Table of Contents
Introduction xiii
Phase 1 The Deconstruction
1 My Breaking Point 3
2 Modest Is Hottest 14
Reframing Sexual Responsibility
3 Guys Don't Like Girls like Me 25
Is My Femininity a Liability?
4 The Time I Became a Feminist 33
God Loves Strong Women
5 Submit to My Husband … What Does That Even Mean? 45
Submission, Personal Agency, and Gender Roles
Phase 2 The Reconstruction
6 Stay Out Till You Make Out 59
The Myth That You Are Your Desire
7 A Real-Life Prude Unicorn 67
The Myth That You Need to Shut Down Your Desire
8 Stepping into the Gray 75
Who Am I?
9 Two Sides of the Same Coin 81
Your Sexuality Isn't Bad; It's God Designed
10 Turned On 87
Embracing Your Sexual Desire 101
Phase 3 The Practical
11 Sexual Healing 99
Sensuality and the Practice of Presence
12 My Dirty Little Secret 108
Is Masturbation a Sin?
13 Let's Talk about Sex 124
What the Bible Really Has to Say about Sex
14 Stop Shoulding All over Yourself 137
Owning Your Sexual Why
15 Blurred Lines 144
Identifying Your Physical Boundaries in Dating
16 Work on Your Ish 154
If You Don't Heal Your Past, It Will Haunt You
17 The One That Got Away 166
The Price We Pay for Low Self-Worth
18 Dating Is a Curb, Not a Cliff 175
Taking the Awkward Out of Dating
19 Now What? 186
Acknowledgments 195
Notes 199