Gender vs. Sex
Recently I found myself outside a bathroom that made it clear that anyone could use it... and I mean anyone. How did we get here? Well here is the simple version of the story. It largely started when it was first suggested that gender and sex are two different things. The theory was put forth that you are born with your sex, but your gender is shaped by your family and the culture around you. Some people picked up this idea and challenged the overall stereotypes of men and women. This led to more and more parents trying to raise their kids with less and less gender specific instruction. In the larger society today gender has become the primary way of identifying a person rather than their sex, and gender has been reduced to the way a person feels.
Facts vs. Feelings
Here's the reality. Someone once said that facts don't care about your feelings. We all know that facts are objective, unchangeable and represent reality the way things really are. There are only two sexes. You're either born with an X and a Y chromosome or an X and an X chromosome. Thus there are two sexes. A person's feelings cannot change that reality. In the same way that I can not change my age, ethnicity or DNA, I can not decide based on feelings that I have a different sex. It would follow logically then that anyone who thinks otherwise is denying reality and has been deceived by the enemy. There is something wrong that needs to be made right.
God's Design: Male & Female
God's design for creation is revealed by the patterns we see in Genesis. The creation account is full of pairs of things which are in many ways opposite each other and yet go together. For example we see God separate light from darkness and waters above from waters below. He made the sun and the moon. And for every kind of animal he made males and females. Most importantly he made Adam and Eve male and female. Both are uniquely different and yet both together reflect the image of God. God made them to become one flesh and to multiply. Two sexes are necessary to fulfill God's plan for creation itself. God's design is one man and one woman sharing one life for one purpose: to glorify God. Anything outside of God's design and purpose is something that does not bring him glory.
Family Discussion
What are some of the ways God has designed men and women to be different?
What are some of the benefits of being raised by a mother and a father?
Why do you think so many people want to adopt a worldview that includes as many as fifty different genders?
What challenges do you think we will face as Christians for insisting that their are only two sexes?