3 Things Your Children Must Know About Gender Identity

“You are the sun, shining down light on everyone . . . I am the moon with no light of my own,” singer and songwriter Sara Groves croons to the God of the Universe in her song “You Are the Sun.” She calls herself a “cold, dark, stone.” And so we are.

And yet, take a walk on the night of a full moon in all its brilliant glory. Better yet, take your kids for a walk, and present to them the world’s largest object lesson. As you look to the sky, remind them that the moon is just a cold, dark stone with no light of its own. Yet, it makes the sun known by “glorifying” it. This is theology even a five year old can grasp.

Here are the three truths children must know about their bodies in order for moral truth to survive and for their faith to survive the gender revolution.

1. Your primary purpose is to glorify God.

God made you for Himself and has jealously protected His treasure by sacrificing His Son. It is this sacrifice that motivates us to glorify Him. And make no mistake, it takes our bodies to do this. “You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20).

Our children do not need self-esteem. They need God-esteem. If they esteem God, they will understand their value, but not make too much of themselves. It’s time to remember who gives light to this dark world, and to train our children that to glorify God is to make Him known and visible. This is our primary purpose—not a great career, not a family, not fame, not wealth—worshiping God.

2. Your primary practice must be to look like Him.

We do that best in His defined roles of maleness and femaleness. We find this truth solidly planted in Genesis. The pinnacle of God’s design was Adam and Eve. One man. One woman. They were more than just a unique creation. They were a representation. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.’ . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:26–27).

There are so many God-like qualities that humanity possesses. Why doesn’t God mention the traits of being intelligent or worshipful or creative when He says we were created in His image? Why doesn’t He commend our language proficiency or our ability to compose sonnets? Apparently these are not the things that make us most like a representation of God. It is our maleness and our femaleness that makes us like Him. This places authentic humanity and sexuality in the context of male and female distinctiveness. Our ability to look like Him mandates that we embrace those differences, not erase them.

3. Our bodies must be a living sacrifice to God.

In Romans, the apostle Paul also begs for us to lay down our own plans for our bodies, and to make them daily, living, breathing sacrifices to our purpose of glorifying God. This includes how we work, live, give, spend, and even who we have sex with, no matter what gender “preference” might be tempting to us. Those verses read: “I beg you to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12: 1–2).

Why did God make you a woman? Or a man?

Because you were created to contribute to humanity’s purpose of glorifying and enjoying God, and God chose for you to do that as a woman. You illuminate who God is when you embrace the role of womanhood because it is in male and female distinctions that we are the image of God. And let’s be honest, there will be times when this is a sacrifice for you. Obedience to God and now our own desires can be deeply painful.

Maybe even for you.

How are YOU called to sacrifice? Will you give of yourself (as Christ did), renew your mind, and become a discerning woman of God so that your body may be a beautiful living sacrifice? Will you prepare your children to be countercultural and worship God as opposed to worshiping self?

By Dannah Gresh