Authentic Intimacy

#338: Single and Sexual

#338: Single and Sexual

As a single person, your sexuality isn’t defined by a list of “do's and don’ts” or captured by simplistic questions like, “What does...

Java Pack: Conversations that Heal

Java Pack: Conversations that Heal

This Java Pack is a Christian leader’s guide to addressing sexual pain. As Christians, we often spend a lot of time debating what we should believe about sexuality. We may devote some time to ensuring we are personally honoring God with our own sexual choices....

#313: The Greatest Love Story

#313: The Greatest Love Story

From beginning to end the Bible tells a story about marriage. Woven through chapter and verse is a story of covenant...

#310: Is God Sexist?

#310: Is God Sexist?

Is God sexist? Does he value men more than he values women?  If you've ever wrestled with this question, a...

Taming the Tongue on Groundhog Day

Taming the Tongue on Groundhog Day

I’ve heard a lot of people comment that life right now feels like the movie “Groundhog Day”—the same thing over and over again with no end in sight. While there are blessings in having our lives slow down, there are also tensions and frustrations that overflow out of...

Spice Up Your Sex Life

Spice Up Your Sex Life

Are you feeling stuck in your home and in your sex life? Think back to the last time you left your house: It could possibly have been four or five weeks! And most likely it has been even longer since you and your spouse went out for a date night. When my husband and I...

Webinar: When Marriage Gets Messy (Healing after Infidelity)

Webinar: When Marriage Gets Messy (Healing after Infidelity)

You may not be in the middle of an affair, but we all have to deal with sin in our relationships. It's easy to turn to other sources of comfort and avoid having hard conversations with your spouse. As your resentment builds, your heart drifts. Thankfully, Jesus has...

#40: Bonus! What Do You Fear?

#40: Bonus! What Do You Fear?

The COVID-19 pandemic is pushing all of our anxiety buttons; loss of loved ones, financial loss, being stuck inside...

COVID-19 and Porn: A Quick Fix But No Solution

COVID-19 and Porn: A Quick Fix But No Solution

(Presione aquí para leer en español). Since COVID-19 the pornography industry has seen a massive increase in website traffic. On March 24th, one major site announced that their premium content would be free to all visitors resulting in a massive increase of 18.5%. The...

Don’t Waste the Pain

Don’t Waste the Pain

Practically every conversation I’ve had in the last week has contained a phrase like, “These are strange times.” Strange times, indeed. Never in our lives have we walked through so much uncertainty. Our health, careers, and security all seem to be dangling on a...

Stop Trying So Hard!

Stop Trying So Hard!

Several years ago, I met with a spiritual mentor with whom I shared an ongoing battle with a particular sin. We had been meeting every month for over a year, yet I was still tempted by the same sin. I didn’t feel like I was making any spiritual progress! I asked her,...

#22: Intimacy, Sex & Aging

#22: Intimacy, Sex & Aging

Intimacy with your spouse is important is all phases of life--even when you're celebrating your 50th wedding...

When Christians Disagree About Sex

When Christians Disagree About Sex

When the Nashville statement was released, it brought conservative Christianity’s relationship with sexual issues front and center into the mainstream media. USA Today described the Nashville statement this way, “A coalition of conservative evangelical leaders laid...

Learning To Be a Promise-Breaker

Learning To Be a Promise-Breaker

Has anyone ever told you that it may be healthy to break your promises? No, I’m not talking about going back on your word or taking your wedding vows lightly. I’m referring to a different category of vows … the kind of promises that people rarely acknowledge.  Our...

A Hopeless New Year?

A Hopeless New Year?

Turning my calendar to January 1 is usually refreshing for me. It represents a new year with a clean slate and excitement ahead. So why does ushering in 2020 feel so heavy and discouraging? There are many indications that our culture is quickly moving in a dangerous...

The World Has a Lot To Say About Sex

The World Has a Lot To Say About Sex

If you haven’t noticed, our views on sexuality have changed quite a bit over the past 20 years. Americans are far more accepting of behaviors they once considered to be sexually immoral. Cohabitation, having sex outside of marriage, no-fault divorce, viewing...

Webinar: The Season for a Savior

Webinar: The Season for a Savior

Perhaps the best way to remember Jesus this Christmas is to imagine where you would be without Him. In this month’s webinar, we’ll talk practically about managing the tensions of Christmas; from strife in your marriage to losing a loved one to facing...

What’s the Purpose of Your Sexuality, Really?

What’s the Purpose of Your Sexuality, Really?

(Presione aquí para leer en español). If someone asks you, “What are your thoughts on cohabitation?” or “Do you believe God is ok with gay marriage?” how would you respond? To answer those questions, you will (without even realizing it) tap into your underlying...

Why Promise Rings and Purity Talks Fall Short

Why Promise Rings and Purity Talks Fall Short

True Love Waits. I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Promise rings. These are the touchstones of predominant teaching on sexual purity promoted by the Christian community throughout the past several decades. Yet, the word purity among today’s Christian adults can elicit feelings...

Why Does Sex Matter in Marriage? Pt. 2

Why Does Sex Matter in Marriage? Pt. 2

For the past decade, my full-time job has been to address sexual issues from a Christian perspective. Knowing that, you can imagine the kind of emails I regularly receive in my inbox! What I’ve learned is that sexuality represents pain in a lot of lives and marriages....

Why Does Sex Matter in Marriage? Pt. 1

Why Does Sex Matter in Marriage? Pt. 1

Most of us have been told that sex in marriage is important. But why does it matter? For many of us, sex may just be “meh” or tend to cause more division in our relationships than unity. The reality is that sexual issues are always among the top reasons for marital...

Escaping the Web of Pride

Escaping the Web of Pride

My dear friend Christine and I were recently talking over a cup of coffee about the battle of pride—how difficult it is to detect and how impossible to conquer. She told me a story that perfectly symbolized the problem: Juli, every morning I go out to my garden and...

Forgiveness is Hard, Grace is Harder

Forgiveness is Hard, Grace is Harder

We spend a lot of time as Christ-followers talking about forgiving one another.  After all, Jesus taught the importance of forgiveness, saying that our Heavenly Father will not forgive us if we fail to forgive each other. That’s pretty heavy! While forgiveness is a...

Shame Doesn’t Have the Final Word

Shame Doesn’t Have the Final Word

Most women bask in the comment “You look so young!” but not Jeni. Why? Because she is young … too young to be the mom of a six-year-old girl. When Jeni goes to her daughter’s kindergarten class, she feels out of place with every other mom, many of whom are more than a...

Joshua Harris, Sexuality, and “Deconstructing” Christianity

Joshua Harris, Sexuality, and “Deconstructing” Christianity

Recently, the evangelical world has been rocked by the news of Joshua Harris’s decision to leave his marriage and Christian beliefs. Joshua is the bestselling author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye and was a well-known spokesperson for the purity movement of the 1990s. A...

How to Have Tough Conversations

How to Have Tough Conversations

(Presione aquí para leer en español)  If you listen to our podcast, Java with Juli, you know that I don’t like small talk. Ever since I was a little girl, I have been able to acutely sense unspoken tension in a room. I’m anxious when I have a conflict with a friend or...

Where Do You Run When Marriage Gets Lonely?

Where Do You Run When Marriage Gets Lonely?

It’s one thing to be lonely when you are single, wondering if and when God will ever bring the right guy. It’s another matter for your heart to ache with loneliness when the “right guy” is living in your home and sleeping in your bed. If this is your reality, please...

Beyond a Happy Marriage

Beyond a Happy Marriage

Within the past month, I’ve been accused of two things that seem to be mutually exclusive. A few women have made comments like, “Why don’t you ever challenge the men? Why is it always the woman’s responsibility to build a healthy marriage?” And men have written me...

#264: You (Too) Can Help #MeToo

#264: You (Too) Can Help #MeToo

What can you do to make sure the voices of sexual abuse victims continue to be heard following the #MeToo movement? How...

#256: Who Is Jesus to You?

#256: Who Is Jesus to You?

Every sexual question is a spiritual question. Every sexual opinion you hold comes from a foundation of who Jesus is to you. In the...

Your Sexual Differences Can Make You Better Lovers

Your Sexual Differences Can Make You Better Lovers

Have you ever wondered why God made you and your husband so different? For many years, I thought that might be my first question to God when I got to heaven. The differences between me and my husband, particularly in the bedroom, were driving us both crazy. Sexual...

#252: Finding Your Voice

#252: Finding Your Voice

Sexual abuse. Fame. Infidelity and divorce. Five-time Grammy award winner Sandi Patty has walked through them all. How has she come...

When Your Child Has Been Sexually Abused

When Your Child Has Been Sexually Abused

The headlines are filled with horrific accounts of childhood sexual abuse. Behind every headline are children and their parents, families grasping for help and hope through devastating news. We have received many emails from parents who recently discovered that their...

Your Husband Needs You Too

Your Husband Needs You Too

I vividly remember life as it was about 15 years ago. A newborn, a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old, all boys. Most mornings, I woke up to someone crying or pleading for breakfast. From the time my feet hit the ground until I went to bed, someone needed me. I was acutely...

#229: Sex, Teens, & Parenting

#229: Sex, Teens, & Parenting

Your daughter is sexting her boyfriend. Your son sees porn on a friend's phone. Now that you've yelled, confiscated their devices...

Sexual Pleasure Isn’t Shameful

Sexual Pleasure Isn’t Shameful

God cares about your sex life. It may seem weird to see the words God and sex in the same sentence. Sometimes when I teach women on this topic, they have a visceral reaction to the concept of God knowing about their sex lives. Psalm 139 tells us that God is always...

Webinar: Fighting Masturbation and Fantasy

Webinar: Fighting Masturbation and Fantasy

Every day we receive questions from men and women around masturbation and fantasy. Is masturbation a sin? How do I know when I've "crossed the line" into sinful sexual fantasy? How do we differentiate between healthy sexual desire and sinful lust? What if I'm single?...

#217: Finding Hope After Betrayal

#217: Finding Hope After Betrayal

The man who vowed to love, cherish and protect you is cheating, lying and hiding. Now what? In this episode, Dr. Juli Slattery is...

Parenting as a Team

Parenting as a Team

When I look at the home my husband grew up in and compare it to how I was raised, it’s a wonder we ended up together. Our backgrounds are so completely opposite that no marriage counselor in her right mind would have suggested that we marry. Once we said, “I do,” Mike...

Webinar: Guilt & Motherhood: When You Think You’re Messing It Up

Webinar: Guilt & Motherhood: When You Think You’re Messing It Up

Practically every mother wrestles with guilt because there is no such thing as a perfect mom. We instinctively know that the choices we make will impact our children's lives. How can we parent our kids without being paralyzed by the guilt of our mistakes and fear of...

The Great Danger: He Can Have My Body, But…

The Great Danger: He Can Have My Body, But…

Jerusha Clark wrote the following guest blog as a follow up to her and Juli's conversation on Java with Juli. Jerusha and her husband Jeramy have been sharing their journey of marriage and parenting for many years, encouraging others with what God is teaching them.You...

Webinar: Loving Your LGBT Neighbor

Webinar: Loving Your LGBT Neighbor

Ever feel like we're just fumbling through the LGBT conversation, always asking but never really finding Biblical answers to questions like: What does it look like to be friends with my lesbian neighbors? How should I love my gay child and his partner? What if I'm...