As a father, I love my son dearly. I’m delighted when he learns a new word (he’s one). It gladdens my heart when he masters a new skill. I’m excited when he figures out connections on his own. And I’m rendered speechless when he demonstrates affection for me and my wife.
I’m sure all parents can relate to these emotions. I’m sure, too, that all parents want, as I do, to protect their children from anything bad that could happen to them in life. This urge grows more urgent amid a godless culture that increasingly targets young children with flattery, lies, wicked counsel, and encouragements to rebel against authority to their own destruction (Proverbs 24:21-22).
Yet our dream of protecting our children from all evil is beyond our power; we are not God. We can avoid danger zones. We can erect sensible guardrails. We can forestall foolish decisions. We can offer wise counsel. We especially can pray that God would protect them. But there will come a point when our children must leap out of our slipstream into the headwinds of life. Even if we are remarkably successful at protecting our children for their first 18 or so years, we can’t protect them forever.
Thus, part of our responsibility as parents is to prepare our children to stand firm once they depart the protection of our roof. The Proverbs instruct us, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). This responsibility is particularly directed to fathers, who are commanded to “bring [their children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
One way to forearm our children against the world’s predatory ambushes is by instructing them in godly wisdom. The wisdom that comes from above will teach them to reject the enticement of sinners (Proverbs 1:10), escape the snares of folly (Proverbs 6:1-5), and lead them in the way of life (Proverbs 6:20-23). Wisdom will continue to guard our children when we no longer can (Proverbs 4:5-6).
Parents may have 18 years with their children, but they need to start training them in godly wisdom early in that process. Children begin to form a worldview as early as 15-18 months, and their worldviews are almost fully formed by age 13, according to research conducted by George Barna. These years are called formative for a reason, and parents are on the frontline of that formation.
The Left understands the importance of early childhood to a person’s future worldview, which is why they are increasingly targeting children with sexual propaganda. There are 127 “LGBTQIA+ Children’s Books” available for purchase at the website of major bookseller Barnes & Noble. Some ideological gender centers will begin to transition children at the age of eight. When the Florida legislature forbade age-inappropriate sexual instruction for kindergarteners in 2022, proponents of sexualizing children threw a nationwide temper tantrum.
If parents aren’t working to mold their child’s worldview before sending them to kindergarten, they are ceding their rightful initiative to the culture.
How can parents do this? Scripture authorizes many topics and modes of instruction. Children can learn about God’s character and work, about what his Word commands, about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and about how to follow him. Parents can teach their children by modeling godliness, instructing them from his Word, and disciplining them in righteousness.
Another scriptural mode of teaching, which I want to focus on here, is through song (see Deuteronomy 31:19-22). Songs are easy to memorize. Your child can recall and meditate on words they know by heart, even if they missed the point the first time. Songs are easy to remember. To celebrate my grandparents’ 80th birthday, my mom compiled chart-topping hits from their youth (the ’50s and ’60s), and they were able to sing along, even though they hadn’t heard the songs in decades. Your children will have songs that stick with them for decades, too. The question is, how profitable to their souls will the words that they remember be?
My wife recently discovered a treasure trove of children’s songs that match biblical truth to catchy tunes. One song in particular, I suggest, is the perfect song to inoculate your kids against gender ideology and related lies our culture believes. The song is called “Just the Way God Wanted Us to Be,” copyrighted in 2015 by Sovereign Grace Music.
In three verses of simple language, the song summarizes Genesis 1-3, extracts key theological truths, and exalts God’s good plan for our lives over manmade alternatives.
Consider how efficiently the song summarizes Scripture’s account of the Creation and Fall. “God made the earth and filled it full with seas and trees and animals. And then, He made a man” (Genesis 1). “But Adam, he was incomplete. So, God gave him a helper, Eve, to carry out His plan. This happy husband and his wife they showed the world what God is like …” (Genesis 2). “… Until they disobeyed. And, even though they lost it all, we still see fingerprints of God in everyone He makes” (Genesis 3).
These words don’t just relay the biblical narrative, they also distill key theological truths. God created the whole world. God created mankind. God created man and woman. God established marriage between one man and one woman. God gave complementary roles to husband and wife. God designed marriage to demonstrate his own character. God also designed marriage to prepare the way for his own plan of redemption in Christ. God’s design for marriage makes us happy, as opposed to incomplete. Although man’s sin marred God’s good creation, it doesn’t erase its fundamental order.
Then the chorus launches into a frontal assault on the spirit of the age. Can we determine our own identity and morality? No, “We are the image of the God of all the world.” Can we decide for ourselves if we will identify as male or female or something in between? No again, “He made us boys; He made us girls.” Can we be fulfilled by autonomous individualism? Not at all! We’re “different pieces of the puzzle, joined together perfectly. We are just the way God wanted us to be.”
The song’s bonus round third verse dismisses all forms of identity politics and shows that God’s plans are better. “We’re shades of brown, we’re short and tall, but God Himself designed us all unique.” If we’re all descended from Adam and Eve, then so-called “racial” differences are only skin-deep. They don’t say any more about a person than his or her height does. They don’t assign us a group identity that pits us against another group, because God made us all unique.
God’s purpose in designing each of us exactly the way we are is evangelistic, the song concludes. He “designed us all unique:” “So we could see. He wants each one to play a part, to show the world the Father’s heart, to have a family.” Because of the brokenness in the world, there are many people without a natural family, or with one that hurts them more than it blesses them. But, according to the images in the official video, the songwriters had in mind the church as the family of God (Ephesians 2:19). It is the church that shows God’s heart to the world (1 John 4:7-8). In the church each one plays a part as God has arranged (1 Corinthians 12:18-20).
Notice how everything God does is to point people to himself. He created man and woman in his image. He created marriage as a picture of what he is like. He created the church as his family. This simple song captures and celebrates all these aspects of God’s redemptive plan. A small child probably won’t understand what Christians mean when we talk about the “Imago Dei,” or “one flesh,” or the family or body as a metaphor for the church. But they can probably understand this song.
As a final recommendation for parents, the song has a tune that’s catchy, memorable, and not annoying. You could probably stand to listen to this song several times in a row. “Musically, I think it’s charming,” said Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council. “I like it, and I would have absolutely played this in my minivan for my young children. It is a wonderful blessing to us all when artists make music for children that is good, true, and beautiful.”
You may or may not be embarrassed if your kid belted out in the produce aisle, “He made us boys! He made us girls!” But you may save yourself years of heartache if you go ahead and inoculate your children against our culture’s toxic worldview from an early age.
Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.
