Girl Defined By Kristen Clark And Bethany BairdSample

Day Four

God’s Design for Gender

Scripture: Genesis 1:27

From gender-neutral clothing stores to gender-neutral bathrooms, society is subtly promoting the idea that gender doesn’t matter. Female? Male? Who cares? We’re all the same.

Instead of promoting our beautiful and unique design as women, our culture is telling us we’re really no different from men. But as women, we’re proud of who God made us to be and don’t appreciate being forced into a neutral mold. We don’t have to be the “same” as men to have value and equality. We know God designed females and males to be equally valuable in worth, but purposely different in roles.

Sadly, though, many Christian churches and communities are accepting this gender-neutral messaging. Instead of fighting for our unique differences, we’re buying into the lie that sameness is better. We’re buying into the lies that say masculinity and femininity are interchangeable. That husbands and wives should share the same roles. That there’s no difference between dads and moms. Our culture is attempting to erase all gender distinctions from our vocabulary, and many of us are taking the bait—hook, line, and sinker.

Our guess is you’ve probably unknowingly bought into a few gender lies (we have!). It’s almost impossible not to. Our culture’s modern view on gender permeates almost every TV show, movie, song, magazine, and book. Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, this worldview is subtly eating the church and families alive. Men don’t know how to be men anymore. Women don’t know how to be women anymore. Marriages are in shambles. Relationships are spiraling downward. The family unit is being destroyed from the inside out.

Instead of turning to God’s Word first and allowing him to inform our worldview on gender, many of us do the opposite. When we get down to it, God’s Word isn’t the deciding factor in what we believe. We allow the world to inform our beliefs about gender. We allow culture to tell us how to live as women. God’s Word becomes nothing more than an inspirational book of encouraging teachings. As a result, we, as Christian women reap many of the same consequences we see in mainstream society.

If we want better results for our womanhood and our families, we have to get back to God’s design for gender.

Do you believe God designed two genders for a reason? Why or why not?