For those who think this might get political, let me state clearly this post is about love for my children and for all God's children.
If I have not listened enough for you to know that I understand and care, I am truly sorry. Often, because I want to relate I open up my mouth too soon and interrupt before common ground is established and prevent true understanding from being achieved.
Life has been eclectic for me. I have had experiences that cannot be understood well by others and so the wisdom and or folly that flows from my mouth is often misunderstood even when I do say the words I am thinking. Simply put, "What I said, was not what you thought I said."
Sometimes a story tells the message best.
Once upon a time there was a baby bird that hatched when his mother was away gathering worms. He spent all day looking for his mother. "Are you my mother?," he asked everyone and everything he met. If you know the book this story comes from, follow along. In the end he returned and his mother did also and he was happy.
In today's world where black is white, good is bad, and men are women. It is acceptable to say I am a bullfrog and expect others to treat you that way. I am not Jeremiah. I learned long ago, this life is not about me. Oh, I have a role to play and a mission to complete. I am here to learn truth, apply it and proclaim it. Not my truth (as imagined on my own), but truth as it governs the universe. Most of the time in my search I have found I was wrong and today I am blessed with wisdom from many years of getting it wrong. I am also blessed from history and can learn from others what worked and what didn't so I did not have to make all mistakes to learn the truth.
I cannot tell gravity which way to pull nor get the earth to warm or cool. Aside from physical realities, I can not change biological realities such as changing a bird into a fish though there are fish that fly. Similarly, I cannot change genders. Some things are and some things are not.
Mankind has been given the gift to choose. With this gift comes power to manifest things by thought, word, and deed. Imagination is magical. Where allowed to flourish, much good can be accomplished. Where allowed to flounder, much can be destroyed. Wisdom is in knowing the difference.
With faith a mountain can be moved, storms can be calmed and men can be healed. I cannot be a woman. Oh, I can be a man who wants to be a woman, and have doctors mutilate my body to look like a woman's. I can take hormones to change my body chemistry and even make my moods to more closely emulate a woman's. It doesn't make me a woman. I can like things that women like, and do things a woman does, but that does not make me a woman.
In some great literature from the Americas I learned about the mists of darkness that keep us from seeing the way home to our Father in Heaven. I believe these mists are all around us and dark as sin. I see the perversion of predators and the insidious messages that are floated as spy balloons over our homes and infect every form of media. Truth is the only solid standard that can keep us safe on the path and truth is being attacked from every angle and with great force today. I am fortunate to know where to go for truth so that I do not lose footing and fall.
We have become so divorced from the family roles and relationships of men and women and the incredible ability we have to help one another, that today's children are confused by interests and urges and the need to conform to changing current views that some feel that they have always been in the wrong body, in the wrong family, in the wrong church or simply displaced from reality all together.
I love you. I don't care what body you are in. I do care what you do, say and think, because there are consequences to following truth or error. I think everyone is unique and amazing. If I don't call you by a specific pronoun I am not trying to dismiss who or what you are. I am going to speak the truth the best I know how and I am not looking for your permission. Your gender/sex?, I'm not interested, I have a wife. Please don't tell me your proclivities, I am not in the market. These things are important to you, and your partner, and future family. You need to get that straight for yourself, but it does not stop me from loving you.
If you live in my house, we will serve the Lord, don't preach any unproven philosophies of man as immutable truth. Certainly, we can discuss them, and should! We can also disagree and still be civil to family and friends. I value that dialogue and disagreement and hope that you value me over my opinions while accepting me and loving me. I will do the same for you. Don't get me wrong, I will also celebrate when our agreements are in line with God's.
Confused? It's OK! We are not done learning yet.
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