Transgendered? No U-Turn for LaVern

For many years while I lived in Nashville, Tennessee, I would hear the familiar voice of “U-Turn LaVern.” She was the radio traffic reporter, notifying her listeners of auto accidents and offering alternative routes. I never saw her face or met her in person, but I always liked her style and her fitting nickname, “U-Turn LaVern.”

Little did I know then of the major gender crisis that had gone on in her life. Through junior high and into high school, LaVern wished she had been born a boy. She did boy stuff and had no interest in more typically feminine activities. And she grew into a very large woman.

In her own words:

I Wished I Had Been Born a Boy

“Probably until I was well into junior high and maybe even high school I was fairly convinced God had simply mixed me up with John Mark, the name my parents had selected if I had been born male.

 “You see, I am over six feet tall and very large framed. I wear a size thirteen shoe. My hands are as large as any man my height. I was always told I had a pretty face but because of my height I was able to carry a lot of extra weight without looking fat and the fullness on my frame tended to make me look less pretty and just attractive. Still I never felt pretty or much less feminine.

“So for many years I wondered. Did God make a mistake?

“Life was very difficult at times and the scars of adolescent taunts, a very low self-esteem and deep, deep loneliness took its toll for many years but that was the journey God had for me.

“I am so thankful I was not approached by anyone that might have worked to convince me I was not what God made me to be and I wonder often, what if?

“I suppose it was probably easier to be a ‘tomboy’ rather than a ‘girlie’ or ‘sissy’ guy but maybe not. Just like the guys opposite me, I was having trouble finding comfort in what God made me to be.

“It’s a journey I am thankful was accompanied by parents, peers and mentors that taught me God does not make mistakes.”

Lavern is now in her 50s. Married over 26 years, she is a mother of four.

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Think about it. If LaVern were growing up today, secularists would likely urge her to explore her gender identity and to consider a change. With her doubts about being female, her desire to be male, and her low self-image, she might have been drawn to become trans-gendered.

Instead she believed what Moses wrote in Gen 1:26-27 and Jesus affirmed in Matt 19:1-9. It is God the Creator who makes a person male or female. He does not make mistakes.

So LaVern chose to make the most out of being what God made her to be: a woman! As a result, now in her 50s, she has been married well over twenty-five years and is the mother of four.

Did LaVern make the U-turn? She did not!

As a result, she has found joy in God’s creation and design.

She goes on to write:

“I am so thankful my path was exactly as it was.

“I am so thankful that eventually it was a path that led me to a man, my husband, that filled the deep loneliness with a love so complete I can’t imagine life without him.

“I am still a tomboy. I struggle to identify with many of the women in my life.

“I had a conversation with a co-worker just last year. I was concerned about my inability to connect with a couple of the women I was working with. I told him I could not understand why they seemed to not like me, why they almost seemed uncomfortable around me. His response still makes me laugh. He said, ‘Well LaVern, you’re basically a dude! You’re intimidating.’

“So still, as basically a dude, I am completely and fully a girl, a woman.

“Fully and completely comfortable with who and what God made me to be.

“I still detest dressing like a woman. I hate dresses and frills.

“I spend as much time as possible in my favorite muck boots and weathered tattered clothes working outside, getting as dirty as possible.

“I love working with my hands till they are rough and worn.

“I’m proud my hands look like hands that work, not like a man but like a woman.

“A woman that may be a bit rough around the edges but make no mistake, still one-hundred percent woman.

“The woman God made me to be.

“Perfect but flawed.

“And praying without ceasing for those still on the journey to find peace and understanding of their own flawed perfection and the perfect plan God has for them.”

Thank you, “U-Turn LaVern,” for showing us that some U-turns are the wrong turns, and for reminding us that God’s path is always right.

https://uturnlavern.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/155/

Gender Surrender?

Related post: Transgendered? No U-Turn for LaVern
http://coryhcollins.blogspot.com/2016/05/transgendered-no-u-turn-for-lavern.html

Does anyone remember the old TV sitcom, “Father Knows Best?” It reflected a time in which our culture respected the role of the father as the leader of the home, protecting and caring for each member, and resolving issues – all in just 30 minutes per episode!

How rapidly and dangerously has our society moved from that view. Today it seems that, when it comes to gender, anything goes.

It’s vital that we address cultural issues, and our culture is changing fast.

For example, Toys R Us, once one of the nation’s largest and oldest toy retailers, is closing all 800 of its stores. Do we all understand why?

From BreakPoint:

In its annual filing, the company pointed to online competition like Amazon, as well as traditional retailers like Walmart and Target, as the major reasons for its bankruptcy. But Toys R Us (which also runs Babies R Us) cited another and much more troubling reason for its collapse: sagging birth rates.

“Most of our end-customers are newborns and children,” writes the toy chain’s management. “Our revenue [is] dependent on the birthrates in countries where we operate. In recent years, many countries’ birthrates have dropped or stagnated as their population ages.”

It’s so obvious, most people don’t even consider it. But a toy chain’s business model is dependent on, well, children. One of the reasons toy retailers are dying is because their base of small customers has become…well…too small.

The U.S. fertility rate is now at an all-time low. Some experts estimate it could be nearing 1.77 children per woman, which is well below what’s known as the “replacement rate”—or that number of babies each couple must have on average in order to keep the population from shrinking. Needs to be 2.11.

Little wonder, since according to a recent Pew Research poll, young Americans today are less likely to be married than any prior generation. In 1965, nearly 80 percent of those between 21 and 36 years old were married. Today, just 37 percent of Millennials that same age are married.

As a result, the non-immigrant population isn’t just shrinking. It’s also graying—and fast. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by 2035, senior citizens will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history.

One of the factors affecting marriage and childbearing – gender confusion.

“Men are like waffles. Woman are like spaghetti.”

In the beginning God made “man” – male and female – in His image. He created not only the biological differences between the two, but also the psychological differences. He defined specific roles for men and women, in the family and in the church. These roles do not compete with each other; they complete each other. Regarding gender, we must not surrender!

God Made Us Different!

Biologically, psychologically, emotionally.

Brains, temperament, problem-solving, strengths.

Each needs what only the other can give.

Complementary – to complete, not compete.

Rooted in creation and the Fall. Gen 1-3

Reflected in marriage. Eph 5:22-33

Reaffirmed in the church. 1 Tim 2-3

Equal in Value, Different in Role

Similar to all of life – work, school, traffic, sports, politics, travel, construction, farming.

Every person’s role is limited.

Every person’s role is needed.

Every person’s role is dependent.

Every person’s role is subject.

Christ / Son, God / Father: 1 Co 11:3; 15:25-28.

Gender: Not a Social Construct!

If anything goes in marriage, then why not …?

Gender is inborn, not created by society.

Gender is given by God, not chosen by me.

A person “trapped in a fe/male body” is fe/male!

And that person is not trapped, but blessed!

Scripture, science, society, history, and nature all converge and have always agreed. Until recently.

Transgender Affirmation Therapy

New $5.7 million study just commissioned by the National Institutes of Health.

Will be used to support chemically and surgically altering the bodies of children.

The conclusion has already been reached.

This study is to search for a basis for it.

BreakPoint: Sacrificing Children to Trans Ideology

Free Speech?

University campuses; Title IX funding control.

Some want to remove these “dangerous” words: man, woman, male, female, he, she, lady, etc.

Former Google engineer James Damore was fired. His memo: “Men and women are different.”

CEO Sundar Pichai called it “offensive and not OK.” He “advanced harmful gender stereotypes.”

The Diversity Dilemma

“Let’s acknowledge and promote diversity.”

“Let’s fire and silence people that discuss it.”

Back to Biblical Basics

Mt 19:4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’”?

We affirm, honor, and celebrate God’s creation!

Possible hymns:

I Sing the Mighty Power of God

All Creatures Great and Small

All Things Praise Thee

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

This is My Father’s World

All Creatures of Our God and King