Game On!  A Parent’s Plan for Facing LGBTQ+ Challenges

Competitions. Bake-offs. Chess games. Three-legged races. Soccer.

In all of these, there’s a built-in challenge. There’s something that must be done to win; there’s work involved. There are rules to keep things equal and fair. There’s often a prize, and some sort of honor is associated with success. The winner at least gains bragging rights.

Are we, as Bible-respecting parents, in a competition with the LGBTQ+ community? Do we have anything solid to work with? Or any truth to hope in?

Do You Know Who Wins?

My older brother enjoyed the fact that he was much better at chess than I was. He was, after all, in the high school chess club; his little sister was in the Latin club. Admittedly, he taught me the rudiments of chess so that he would have someone to practice with at home. . . to practice beating. Sometimes he had to bribe me into playing a game or two. Clearly it was not really a legitimate competition.

We knew who would win.

I dutifully learned how the pieces moved on the chess board; I had many opportunities to learn what “check mate” meant! Sometimes I even made moves that earned his admiration and made him give up a pawn or a knight (but never a queen). Of course, he took no time to teach me clever strategies.

We knew who would win.

My brother even let me decide whether I’d use the red or white pieces. I recall amusing myself with the “dead” pieces as they—mostly the color I had chosen—quickly accumulated in a pile beside the board. Sometimes my brother could be kind, even sympathetic. He could afford to be.

We knew who would win.

In facing LGBTQ+ challenges, that community does think this is a competition, but Scripture says otherwise. There is no competition between Jesus Christ and any other challenger.

New Renditions, Same Old Opponent

Like other strongholds raised against the Creator-God over the millennia, the sexual aberrations of our day are indicators of a completely unequal match-up. They are residual skirmishes between truth and falsehood, between beautiful design and destruction, between God and Satan.

Scripture has established the winner as Christ. His work of redemption is a plan that was in view from the beginning of human history, in the Garden of Eden—“The Lord God said to the serpent…‘he [Christ] shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel’” (Gen. 3:14–15)—and from eternity past.

Today’s new renditions of the perversions, distortions, and temptations that Satan has offered to the world since Genesis 3 are temporary strongholds that will not stand (2 Cor. 10:4). Today’s examples produce impressive noise; they can appear very effective and threatening. They can easily deceive.

However, Scripture tells us that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:12–13). God’s truth, Scripture, rests unassailably on the plan and Person of God himself.

Facing LGBTQ+ Challenges? The Winner Is Christ

As a childish chess player, I did not have an assurance as do we parents who pray for our dear children.

We have a better, omnipotent Person who has played and is playing our hand for us. We do not need to argue in his defense. We proactively study his Word. We simply reflect him and repeat his message when he gives opportunity. Through intercessory prayer, we stand in support of his plans, ways, purposes, and timetables. We work to become more useful to him. That is, we “do [our] best to present [ourselves] to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). Confidence in him and in his Word is always justified!

Remember, our real opponent is completely unworthy and has been declared defeated. The game is already in the Book. We know Who has won!