Navigating Pride Month

A Parent's Guide to Truth, Love, and Discernment

Earlier today, as we were driving home, my daughter hit me with some questions about Pride Month. I don’t know how it is in your home, but every time June rolls around, our dinner table fills with questions about rainbow flags, about Pride displays at the store, and at times about things they heard from friends about the topic. And often, these conversations catch me off guard. I’m not afraid to talk about these things, and I believe it needs to be an ongoing conversation, but it still makes me nervous at times. Maybe you’ve felt the same tension: wanting to answer with clarity, but also with kindness. Wanting to stay faithful to God’s truth, while showing the love of Christ.

If you’re anything like me, you don’t just want to keep your kids sheltered, you want to send them out prepared. You want to raise children who know what is true and how to love those who believe differently, standing courageously with a grace that only Christ can supply.

Here’s the good news: God hasn’t left us to figure this out alone. His Word gives us what we need, not only to navigate these conversations, but to do so in a way that communicates biblical love, not panic. We can stand firm in truth and extend the radical love of Jesus at the very same time. With the help of resources like Rachel Gilson’s Parenting Without Panic, this post is meant to help you think through how to walk that path with your children, not perfectly, but faithfully,  with eyes fixed on Christ.

Point to the beauty of God’s Good Design: Build a Biblical Foundation Early

The first thing we need to do as parents is to build a biblical foundation for our children. As parents, we should not just react to cultural narratives but intentionally teach our children the beauty of God’s design for gender and sexuality. 

Rachel Gilson puts it this way: “God’s vision for our bodies and relationships really is good news, and we can talk calmly and confidently about it with even our young kids.” — Rachel Gilson

So, our priority as parents is to help our children see their body, gender, and sexuality as inherently good and God-given. For those of us who grew up during the Purity Culture movement, this can feel difficult. Though it started with the good desire to teach us to honor God with our bodies, it often left many young believers feeling ashamed of their bodies or unsure about how to talk about their body and sexuality.

This can at times be difficult for those in my generation that were brought up in Purity Culture that even though ultimately started with a desire to train us to honor God with our bodies, unintentionally lead many young believers to either be ashamed of their bodies or sexuality or to make them blush when thinking about it. 

As Sam Alberry says “Culture says, ‘You are your sexuality.’ Scripture says, ‘You are God’s.’ Your identity is not determined by your sexual feelings but by God’s creative and redemptive work.” and “God made our bodies, redeemed them through Christ, and will one day raise them to life again. Our bodies are of eternal significance.”

This truth is all over Scripture starting in Genesis all the way to the New Testament where Paul reminds the Corinthians not only that their bodies are a temple, but also that because of the Cross, they have been bought with a price. 

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” -1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (ESV)

A positive vision of sexuality rooted in creation gives us and our children a firm footing in a world of shifting identities. By teaching them early that God’s design is not just true but beautiful, we equip them to withstand cultural confusion.

Embrace Grace and Truth: Standing Firm Without Fighting Dirty

I don’t know about you, but I am exhausted by the culture wars. Culture wars happen when different groups in society argue over big questions about what is right and wrong, things like family, marriage, and identity. These debates often get loud and heated but rarely yield any results.

In a world that is already saturated with us vs. them fights in every arena, we need to resist the pull towards combativeness and instead model how biblical truth and Christ-like love are intrinsically linked. Our goal is to be faithful witnesses who neither compromise truth nor withhold compassion.

And sometimes even within the church, we unintentionally absorb an “us vs. them” mindset. Growing up, I often got the impression, perhaps not deliberately taught, that the LGBTQ community was the enemy. The Gospel, on the other hand, tells me to love my neighbor. So as we equip our children to have these conversations, we need to model how to stand firm but without neglecting our call to love others as we love ourselves.  

As Jackie Hill Perry says “The gospel hurts and heals all at the same time.” It is a fact that upholding a biblical sexual ethic will be offensive to some, but let the offense come from the truth and not from us. 

During my time in ministry, I have seen many young men and women who struggled with their sexuality who refused to talk to their parents about it because they had heard the way they spoke of the LGBTQ community, and they feared they would be shunned. The worst part was that often they were right. 

Paul again says “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” — Ephesians 4:15

When we act like Paul instructs us, we are not only loving our neighbor as Christ would want us to, but we are also opening the door to our children if they ever find themselves with questions about their sexuality.

Truth and love are not competing virtues but twin realities in Christ. As we navigate cultural confusion, we are called to hold fast to God’s Word while displaying the gentleness and humility of Jesus.

Prioritize Identity in Christ: Freedom from the Lies of Self-Creation

The world says, “You are your sexuality,” but Scripture says, “You are who Christ says you are.” So as Christian parents we must teach our children that their deepest identity is not found in feelings or attractions but in being beloved by God.

Rebecca McLaughlin says:

“In Christ, one’s deepest identity is not who one loves, but Who one is loved by. The truest thing about an individual is that they are the beloved of God.” — Rebecca McLaughlin

The world is doing its best to shape the minds and hearts of our children, andWe must gently but persistently remind them: their worth isn’t found in their feelings or achievements but in the unchanging love of God. One of the throughlines of Disney movies, music, and video games is this idea that you have to shape your own identity and create your own path. 

But true freedom comes not from creating an identity but from receiving one. By rooting our children in the truth of who they are in Christ, we offer them a solid hope that cannot be shaken by cultural trends or personal struggles.

Parenting with Peace, Not Panic

I want to close with a reminder that as Christian parents, we are not called to panic but to persevere in the slow, faithful work of discipleship. Trusting in God’s sovereignty, we can courageously engage the cultural moment with unwavering truth and Christlike love, confident that God is at work.

The truth is, we will mess up. We will often put our foot in our mouths, and we won’t always have the right answer. And that’s ok. Because we are in Christ, we have the freedom to fail. And there is grace for that. We don’t have to be perfect because Christ is all the things we are not. The Word of God reminds us of this:

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” — Lamentations 3:22–23

Dear parent, be intentional,  but most importantly, seek to be faithful! Faithfulness in the small, daily conversations will bear fruit. Trust that as you plant seeds, the God who is always faithful will bring the growth, often slowly, but surely.