What a joy to read your testimony! My heart was moved, challenged, and encouraged. In the end what I read (without diminishing the uniqueness of your testimony or any individual testimony) is a template of the testimony of every believer. The struggle, the relapses, the seeking of strength outside of ourselves, the Savior with open arms to receive the penitent sinner, and the glory that we must give to God for victory through Christ. This is what we have to offer a struggling and aimless world!
I particularly appreciated your challenging of cultural stereotypes. This sentence stood out to me: "I didn’t measure up to the masculine stereotypes but I now reflected that many of those stereotypes are not biblical anyway." One thing I have noticed in the unbalanced way that in and out of the church we can swing the pendulum too far and emphasize certain aspects of masculinity without appreciating or valuing other aspects. For me, I cringe at a certain type of online "conservative" Christian man with the macho man or warrior complex which seems to me to be an overreaction to what can be perceived as a feminizing of the church. Lots to sort out with that topic, but I love your emphasis of returning to the Bible for our cues and not taking our cues from the culture. And if we are to look to Christ as an example, we can see a wonderful blend of tenderness and fearlessness that defies cultural stereotypes.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to bring glory to him in your life and through your testimony.
I commend you for your willingness to share your story here. It was very brave of you to do so. By any chance would you be willing to list the studies you read related to cross-dressing behavior among MtF individuals, as well as the books you read about gender dysphoria and the Christian websites you said you personally found helpful? I would like to check out these resources myself. It would be much appreciated.
What a joy to read your testimony! My heart was moved, challenged, and encouraged. In the end what I read (without diminishing the uniqueness of your testimony or any individual testimony) is a template of the testimony of every believer. The struggle, the relapses, the seeking of strength outside of ourselves, the Savior with open arms to receive the penitent sinner, and the glory that we must give to God for victory through Christ. This is what we have to offer a struggling and aimless world!
I particularly appreciated your challenging of cultural stereotypes. This sentence stood out to me: "I didn’t measure up to the masculine stereotypes but I now reflected that many of those stereotypes are not biblical anyway." One thing I have noticed in the unbalanced way that in and out of the church we can swing the pendulum too far and emphasize certain aspects of masculinity without appreciating or valuing other aspects. For me, I cringe at a certain type of online "conservative" Christian man with the macho man or warrior complex which seems to me to be an overreaction to what can be perceived as a feminizing of the church. Lots to sort out with that topic, but I love your emphasis of returning to the Bible for our cues and not taking our cues from the culture. And if we are to look to Christ as an example, we can see a wonderful blend of tenderness and fearlessness that defies cultural stereotypes.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to bring glory to him in your life and through your testimony.
Thank you, brother, for sharing your story. So powerful. Thank you for your wisdom also on suffering. You helped us see Jesus.
I commend you for your willingness to share your story here. It was very brave of you to do so. By any chance would you be willing to list the studies you read related to cross-dressing behavior among MtF individuals, as well as the books you read about gender dysphoria and the Christian websites you said you personally found helpful? I would like to check out these resources myself. It would be much appreciated.