R.I.P. Common Sense: What Happens When God Gives Parents Over

When the world abandons God's truth, where does it leave our children?

TRENDS

Glorious Grace

9/13/20265 min read

I wasn't planning to write this article. But after watching a video recently, I couldn't shake what I had seen.

The video featured a mother explaining why she believed her young son was "trans." According to her account, she began noticing what she considered signs when he was very young. She described his interest in his sister's toys, his enjoyment of wearing dresses and costumes at preschool, and, later, his dislike of playing T-ball.

I couldn't help but ask: When did ordinary childhood behavior become evidence of something much bigger?

Children explore. They pretend. They become fascinated with different toys, clothes, characters, and activities. They imitate what they see around them. They are learning about the world around them.

When my daughter was very young, I saw this firsthand. She was fascinated by colorful objects, loved playing with blocks, and was beginning to figure out puzzles. She wasn't thinking about whether a toy was meant for a boy or a girl. She was simply being a child.

I also thought about my own brother when he was little. Between the ages of 2 and 4, he enjoyed putting on wigs, wearing high heels, and carrying a purse around the house.

Did we conclude that he was trying to tell us he was born into the wrong body?

No. He was playing pretend.

Today, he is a straight man with no interest in girly things, and those childhood activities were simply a part of growing up.

So what happens when adults begin assigning much deeper meaning to ordinary childhood behavior?

When Common Sense Gives Way

This is where the issue becomes bigger than toys, clothing, or children's activities. As Christians, we have to ask a fundamental question: Who gets to define reality—God or the culture?

Scripture gives us the answer.

"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."
— Genesis 1:27

That doesn't mean every boy will like sports or every girl will enjoy dolls.

A little boy can love dolls. A little girl can love baseball. A child can enjoy dressing up, pretending to be a character, or playing with toys traditionally associated with the opposite sex.

None of those things change the way God created that child.

Children are still learning, growing, and discovering the world around them. They shouldn't have to carry adult expectations or labels simply because their interests don't fit someone's idea of what a boy or girl is supposed to like.

And this is where parents have an enormous responsibility.

What Happens When We Reject God's Truth?

The Bible gives us a sobering warning about what happens when people repeatedly reject God and exchange His truth for their own understanding.

Romans 1:28 says:

"Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done."

God gave them over. Those are sobering words.

When people continually reject God's truth, there can come a point when God allows them to follow the consequences of that rejection, which makes me think about what we're seeing in our culture.

What happens when we stop allowing God to define truth? What happens when cultural ideas become more authoritative than Scripture? What happens when adults begin interpreting ordinary childhood behavior through an ideological lens rather than allowing children to simply be children?

At some point, we have to ask whether we have become so far removed from God's design that we've lost the ability to recognize what should be obvious.

R.I.P. common sense.

I Didn't Always Think This Way

I also can't write about this as though I've always understood it correctly. Before I called Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior, I thought differently. I believed there were people who had been born into the wrong bodies. At the time, that seemed logical to me.

But after accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior, my understanding changed completely and suddenly. It was almost like someone had turned on a light.

I began looking at the world through Scripture rather than trying to make Scripture fit the world.

That doesn't mean I suddenly became perfect or understood everything. It means I had a new foundation for determining what I believed to be true. And that foundation is Jesus Christ.

Parents Have a Responsibility

This is why I believe Christian parents have to be especially careful. Our children are still developing. They're learning language, relationships, emotions, boundaries, and how the world works.

They need parents who are willing to guide them rather than allowing the culture to define them. Our children need to know that their identity begins with the God who created them.

That doesn't mean we should treat children harshly when they do something unexpected. It means we should have enough wisdom to distinguish between childhood exploration and adult conclusions.

Parents have been entrusted with an incredible responsibility. We aren't supposed to surrender that responsibility to the culture. We're supposed to train our children in the ways of God.

Truth and Love Are Not Enemies

Will speaking biblical truth make some people angry? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean we should stop speaking it.

I don't say these things because I hate anyone. I say them because I love people.

Before I knew Christ, I believed things that I no longer believe today. If someone had told me the truth simply because they wanted to see me know Jesus, I wouldn't call that hatred.

I would call it love.

Those who truly love others should want them to know the truth—not because we think we're better than anyone else, but because we all need Jesus.

Jesus' message was not to affirm everything we want to believe.

His message included:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
— Matthew 4:17

Following Christ means being willing to surrender our own ideas when they conflict with God's Word.

We Cannot Be Afraid to Stand

Jesus said:

"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."
— John 10:27

If we belong to Christ, His voice—not the culture's voice—must ultimately be the one we follow.

There will be times when standing on biblical truth makes us unpopular. We may be called names. We may be accused of being hateful simply because we disagree with the prevailing cultural narrative.

But Christians aren't called to follow the crowd. We're called to follow Jesus.

As parents, that responsibility is even greater. We have been entrusted with children who are still learning how to understand the world. We should give them a foundation built on God's Word rather than allowing the world to build one for them.

Common sense may seem to be disappearing, but God's truth has not changed. And when the world tells us to abandon what God has revealed, we should remember exactly who we're called to follow.

Jesus Christ.

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