5 Things I Want my Kids to Know about Gender Identity

1.GOD GAVE you your gender, and God has NEVER made a mistake.

When we have the starting point of belief in a loving God who is working all things together for our good and His glory, we’re starting in the right place. When we start with any other worldview, we won’t be able to find true answers to the deepest questions of our souls. God made you. He loves you. He made you either male or female. He doesn’t make mistakes.

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.” Psalm 139:13-14

2. Men and women are created EQUAL, but they are also created with DIFFERENCES.

I still can’t understand why it’s no longer politically correct or cultural acceptable to say that there are differences between men and women that extend beyond genitalia. You don’t have to see a group of kids playing on the playground for more than a few minutes to notices that boys and girls tend to interact with the world and with each other in different ways. Both masculinity and femininity are beautiful unique and equally valuable. They’re complimentary, like two sides of the same coin; like two wings on the same bird. To say either is wrong or to say that one is more important than the other is to lose part of our own humanity. To say their neither exists apart from man-made (or woman-made) cultural constructs, is to abandon common sense.

“So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

3. Your gender can’t define you, and you can’t define your gender.

Let me unpack this one just a bit…I don’t believe that God ever intended gender to be a prison cell that puts limitations on you. Like all things God gives, gender is a beautiful gift that frees us to be all He created us to be. While our gender certainly sets part of the course for our lives and families, it’s not what defines our souls. While our gender can’t define us, neither can we define our genders. There is much in life we get to decide, and there are some things that God is His love and sovereignty decides for us. Gender is one of those God-given, irrevocable gifts.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

#4 is vital to helping us see ourselves and see others in a healthy way…