Females come in all shapes and sizes in a time when gender confusion reigns. Different cultures view some better than others, as if some are “less feminine.” Many women go along with this attitude, while many men encourage it. As a result, many economies are shaped by it. “Perfect” women are rewarded in events created for staring at female bodies and longing after them. The rest of us lift our knees in photos and put one hand on our hips, hoping we’ll look good. It’s no wonder women without “designer shapes” feel they might not be “all woman.” Some got winning womanly combinations, while others just want to be … something else.
What’s worse in this current than confusion about who we are or conflict about our very creation? Gender confuses a lot of people. They don’t like the one they are, aren’t sure how to be what they got, or want to change the category they were born into, so did parental abandonment mix them up? Have sexual images confused them? Has intimate assault or crude behavior made them discontent? Did God just get it wrong?
It’s no secret that in God’s story with mankind, (read Genesis 3 here) His enemy planted doubt. The first pair knew who they were, yet the creation record tells us Satan prodded Eve to question the design God put in place. Satan encouraged her to take the risk to do things her own way, so she could know better than God and be like the Creator Himself. However, when she decided “God got it wrong” and she could get it right, she found out how wrong it felt.
As a result, there’s a lot to confuse people about gender. Visual images and lewd talk about sexual things paint a twisted picture of what female and male are. Exploitation in many forms, as well as sarcasm and disrespect, feed a growing rejection of one sex over the other and a preference to create something “else,” another “kind,” a “better kind.”
So, did God get it wrong? Did He shortchange you by making you the gender you are? Could you do better? Does the Bible give a clue about what it is to be male or female? Most of all, despite current gender confusion, there are some basic, unchanging things:
Gender Confusion?
God’s gender plan declares us good
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) God even gave the genders a blessing when He made them, distinctly two kinds. Unique, but of the same species. In essence, He said, “These genders are good.”
God’s gender plan gives us value
God’s Word does say, “there is no male or female,” (Galatians 3:28). He says that because in Jesus Christ there is no inequity in how He receives people because of race, gender, or life role. Throughout the Bible, both women and men are highly valued by God.
God’s gender plan grows in hearts
People like to make scales. We love declaring who’s most this or that. But God’s scale isn’t about shape or size or appearance. The one who made us cares about the “hidden person of the heart,” (1 Peter 3:4) not measurements, proportions, or features. Even with “girl parts,” true femininity is born in a woman’s heart.
Ultimately, what do we tell children about gender confusion? How do we label bathrooms? How do we choose dolls? What do we say about different families, or people who change their identity? How do big-boned women dress in a tall-thin world? Do we have to keep tweezing? How do we raise kiddos who know who they are and accept it with confidence? How do we know and embrace our own gender? How do we get through the gender maze today?
The current doesn’t look to be calming when it comes to gender confusion. My government debates transgender issues. Facebook offers 58 gender options and offers a free space for those who want “something else.” If we wonder if God got it wrong and can we do better, we can look back to His design:
- God made two distinct kinds of human beings and declared both “good” and worthy to bless. If He made you man, it’s a good thing. If He made you woman, it’s a good thing.
- God considers both female and male to be highly valued. Men and women can equally know God and have a relationship with Him through Jesus.
- God designed men and women to be unique, with heart-born qualities that express their design. Physical appearance doesn’t make us more or less of a woman.
It’s good being a woman, but we’re doing it in a confused current.
Finally, let’s ask God to teach us to be women He considers beautiful. Let’s contribute confident gender contentment and expression to our world. People breathe a sigh of relief around women at ease with their design, and our children will see God’s way is the good way.
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