Gender Confusion 3

Our friend, Nicholas Black, recently wrote an article for the HarvestUSA ministry that offers wise counsel on what to say when a child or friend expresses gender confusion. This week, I’m unpacking Nicholas Black’s five broad principles a parent, pastor, and church can pursue. The third principle is this: help your young friend to grasp that our lives, which includes our bodies, first and foremost belong to God. We need to patiently teach that believers in Christ have a deeper foundation for their identity than those in the world. We do not have the right to be autonomous, self-determined individuals who create identities and lives that fit our felt needs. God has given us life and redemption. We are made in his image which includes our gendered bodies given to us at birth. An identity grounded in Christ seeks his purposes above all else. Orienting ourselves around Christ allows us to reflect on the secure identity that he offers. Pray that they would not be enslaved to their internal desires.