| Research on spiritual intimacy has been under explored. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the value of spiritual intimacy for Protestant Christian wives living in San Diego, CA. The value of spiritual intimacy was generally defined as a wife's perception of (a) her commitment of spiritual intimacy with her spouse, (b) her spouse's commitment to spiritual intimacy in the marriage, (c) the Church's perception of spiritual intimacy in a Protestant Christian marriage, and (d) God's perception of spiritual intimacy for a Protestant Christian marriage. Data was analyzed by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) using a six-step method, which included (a) reading and rereading, (b) initial noting, (c) developing emergent themes, (d) searching for connections across emergent themes, (e) moving to the next case, and (f) looking for patterns across cases (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). Nine themes emerged and portrayed how spiritual intimacy was valued in a Protestant Christian marriage. Spiritual intimacy was found to be valued through (a) the perception of spiritual intimacy in the marriage (b) spiritual leadership, (c) communicating spiritually, (d) prayer, (e) spiritual and emotional encouragement and support, (f) God's role in the marriage (g) being a role model, (h) spiritual growth in struggle, and (i) awareness and intentionality. |
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