Here is a quote from New Testament scholar, N. T. Wright on transgenderism. “The confusion about gender identity is a modern, and now internet-fuelled, form of the ancient philosophy of Gnosticism. The Gnostic, one who ‘knows’, has discovered the secret of ‘who I really am’, behind the deceptive outward appearance (in Rifkind’s apt phase, the ‘ungainly, boring, fleshy one”). This involves denying the goodness, or even the ultimate reality, of the natural world. Nature, however, tends to strike back, with the likely victims in this case being vulnerable and impressionable youngsters who, as confused adults, will pay the price for their elders’ fashionable fantasies.”
When I first read this I immediately thought of fathers and their children. The cry of my heart for fathers is not give into the cultural hysteria regarding acceptance of transgender movement. Sons and daughters are a precious gift given to father by a loving heavenly Father. “Children are a gift from the Lord, they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s quiver. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them” (Ps 127:3-4). When our kids were growing up, my wife and I would refer to them as “prescription babies.” In those days a popular phrase among Christian parents was, “God doesn’t make any junk.”
Men, it is vital for you to model, by your disposition, a heavenly Father who has given you specially chosen children to be in your quiver. They are your most important stewardship. God’s intention is for you to shape their lives so they might live in the freedom and liberty of their God given gender. You and your wife model for your children how God intends man and woman are to live on this earth. So in my humble opinion, it is extremely vital that you as a father live freely, comfortably and without apology in your God give masculine soul. You symbolize masculinity. Your children will absorb a sense of the masculine from you.
Granted this is not an easy task in our day. But if your sons and daughter are to weather the chaos of the gender wars, you can have a vital impact on their lives by simply modeling a Dad who is affirmed in his masculine soul, while honoring his wife as his feminine compliment. Judy and I made it clear to our three children that our love for one another came before our love for our children. So how I treated the mother of my children was vital. They know they were the result of our union in marriage. They in turn were our most precious gifts from God. As parents, we visualized how God had perfectly arranged the order of our family with three children male, female and male in just the right order.
Do not underestimate the symbolism of your role as Father in family life. Leading family devotions at the family meal is a good example. We read in Exodus 23:25-6, “Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you….and I will give you a full life span.” Leanne Payne uses this passage to point out the following, “The modern fast track we are on has nearly eliminated ceremony and ritual at table. Think, if you will, of the ceremony or ritual of the blessing that brings down the transcendent, hallowing the ordinary, at table.” Use meal time to express the masculine voice speaking into souls of your children.
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