272 episodes
- "Scary, dirty, and terrifying." That's how one 19-year-old described sex. Maybe some part of you still feels the same.
So many of us grew up believing spirituality and sexuality live in separate camps, like two channels where one has to be off for the other to be on. Whether you're 19 or 90, the question underneath is the same: can I really love God and be fully alive in my body?
This week, Francie reads a letter from a college-aged listener who went from feeling disturbed by her own anatomy to genuinely excited about God's design. What shifted her? It started with one simple sentence from her mom.
Through this young woman's story, Francie unpacks the three pillars at the heart of her teaching, and why the path from shame to joy is open to every generation, including yours.
In this episode:
What disgust and shutdown might be trying to tell you
The three pillars that move us from fragmentation to wholeness
Why you don't have to be in a sexual relationship to be fully alive
Moms, aunties, and mentors: why your voice matters more than you think
Ready to go deeper right now?
Back to the Garden is the guide I wrote for exactly where you are — a married woman's guide to pleasure by design. It's the most honest thing I've put together, and at $18 it's the easiest yes you'll make this week. → here
Don't want to walk this out alone?
The Circle is where I show up consistently: a group of women from all over the world praying, asking honest questions, and finding healing together. We talk throughout the week on Voxer and gather on Zoom once a month. There's a place for you here. → here - When you're missing each other, everything in you wants to pull back. What if the way through is to lean in?
When pain builds up in a marriage, self-protection feels like the safest move. But Francie has learned that in seasons of discouragement and opposition, the answer is often the opposite: fight for intimacy with intimacy.
Following up on last week's conversation about the battle for union, Francie shares how she and her husband have been fighting for their marriage in one of the hardest seasons of their 20 years together. Some of it is prayer, including a truth about spiritual authority in marriage that gave her new confidence. Some of it is surprisingly simple and tender.
If you feel stuck, this is your invitation to stop waiting for things to get easier and start showing up in a different spirit.
In this episode:
Why no one has more authority to pray for your spouse than you
What it looks like to bless your husband's body
Non-pressure ways to stay close when you have nothing left to give
The 30-second habit that gets connection flowing again
A blessing you can pray over your spouse tonight
Resources mentioned:
Last week's episode: Naked and Unashamed: The Battle for Intimacy in Your Marriage
The Wild at Heart app (John Eldredge) for set prayers
The Circle, where Francie has taught on "plugging in"
Ready to go deeper right now?
Back to the Garden is the guide I wrote for exactly where you are — a married woman's guide to pleasure by design. It's a really good place to start and at $18 it's the easiest yes you'll make this week. → here
Don't want to walk this out alone?
The Circle is where I show up consistently: a group of women from all over the world praying, asking honest questions, and finding healing together. We talk throughout the week on Voxer and gather on Zoom once a month. There's a place for you here. → here - There's a bigger story happening in your marriage than the one you can see.
In the garden, God's design for a husband and wife was naked and unashamed: fully seen, fully vulnerable, fully loved. But we don't live in the garden anymore. We live in a battle.
If intimacy has felt heavy lately, if distance or old shame has crept back in without explanation, Francie wants you to know there may be more going on than meets the eye. In this episode, she shares what a recent season of opposition taught her about why union is worth fighting for, and how to fight for it.
You will be encouraged with biblical teaching and prayer for fresh revelation, healing, and transformation as we know God more.
In this episode:
What the garden reveals about vulnerability and healing
Why the enemy works so hard against union
The surprising response to heaviness in your sex life
A prayer for your body, your desire, and your oneness
Ready to go deeper right now?
Back to the Garden is the guide I wrote for exactly where you are — a married woman's guide to pleasure by design. It's the most honest thing I've put together, and at $18 it's the easiest yes you'll make this week. → here
Don't want to walk this out alone?
The Circle is where Francie shows up consistently: a group of women from all over the world praying, asking honest questions, and finding healing together. If you've been longing for women who share your values and want to grow in this area too, there's a place for you here. → here - This week, Francie takes a fun departure from the current series to talk about an idea that's become a real rhythm in her own marriage and resonated with listeners ever since she started sharing it: how to plan a sexcation. Whether you have a full week and a real travel budget, or you can't get five feet past your front door right now because life is life, Francie walks through a full spectrum of options — starting small and building up.
She shares the origin story of her and Wyatt's "hotel dates" (born out of COVID lockdowns), why a 24-hour local Airbnb might be the sweet spot for couples with limited time or budget, and what a 48-hour-or-longer getaway can open up for a couple with more margin. Along the way, she gets practical about food, screens, conversation starters, and the small things — a feather, new lingerie, a watercolor set — that build anticipation and connection. She closes with an honest word about what to do when the trip doesn't go as planned.
In This Episode:
Why you don't need a big trip to have a meaningful getaway — start small and build from there
Hotel dates: the COVID-era habit that became a lasting rhythm in Francie and Wyatt's marriage
Why a 24-hour local Airbnb offers a different (and often better) kind of privacy than a hotel
What changes when you have 48 hours or more: new hormones, new experiences, new memories
Practical tips for food, screens, conversation starters, and building anticipation
What to do when life interrupts the trip you planned
Ready to go deeper right now?
Back to the Garden is the guide I wrote for exactly where you are — a married woman's guide to pleasure by design. It's the most honest thing I've put together, and at $18 it's the easiest yes you'll make this week. → here
Questions? Find me on Instagram or at franciewinslow.com Ep. 273. Celebrating Masculine Strength (Part 2): The Gaze, the Time, and the Words That Heal a Marriage
2026-09-21 | 23 mins.Francie continues her celebration of holy masculine strength — and this week, she gets specific. Masculine strength "used well," she says, isn't about domination or performance; it's strength channeled toward self-giving love, the kind Ephesians 5 calls husbands to.
Francie unpacks three concrete ways her husband Wyatt's strength has healed her heart and body over 21+ years of marriage: his disciplined gaze (and what it's meant that his eyes are for her, not a scroll), his willingness to become a curious student of her body and design instead of assuming he already knew it, and the intentional, unhurried way he creates safety in their intimate life — what he calls "the pace of my pleasure." She closes with a tender word on the power of words: how careless ones wound, and how measured, honoring ones can heal decades of body shame.
In This Episode:
What "masculine strength used well" actually means — and why it's the opposite of domination
The gift of a disciplined gaze, and how it healed Francie's fear of being compared
How Wyatt became a "student" of Francie's body — and why the curiosity mattered more than expertise
Spontaneous intimacy vs. intentional, unhurried intimacy ("the pace of my pleasure")
How words — in conflict and in the bedroom — can wound or heal
A closing charge to the husbands showing up, imperfectly, anyway
Ready to go deeper right now?
Back to the Garden is the guide I wrote for exactly where you are — a married woman's guide to pleasure by design. It's the most honest thing I've put together, and at $18 it's the easiest yes you'll make this week. → here
Questions? Find me on Instagram or at franciewinslow.com
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About Female by Design
An honest space for female flourishing. Together we'll explore sexuality and spirituality by God's design, healing our relationship with pleasure, our bodies, and our identity as image-bearers. Let's take a deep breath and step into God's invitation to live fully alive—mind, body, and spirit.
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