God Made Boys and Girls

Helping Children Understand the Gift of Gender

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Pub Date 2 Sep 2019 | Archive Date 3 Oct 2019

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Description

God Made Boys and Girls helps children understand that their gender is a gift from the God who made them and loves them. The story begins as the girls and boys at Grace Christian School are discussing if boys will always be boys and girls will always be girls.

Their teacher explains that God gives each of us the gift of being male or female before we are born, and that you continue to be a boy or a girl whether you like to climb trees or play house, play tag or color pictures, cause a ruckus or sit quietly.

In a world where there is so much confusion about gender and identity, pastor and best-selling author Marty Machowski shares the simple, clear truth that all of us are made in God’s image as either male or female—and what God made is very good!

Included in the back of the book is a special section just for parents and caregivers that gives biblical guidance and help as they have this important conversation with their children.


AUTHOR

Marty Machowski is a Family Life Pastor at Covenant Fellowship Church in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, where he has served on the pastoral staff for over thirty years. He is the author of The Gospel Story Bible, Long Story Short, Old Story New, the Gospel Story Curriculum, the Prepare Him Room advent devotional and curriculum, Wise Up family devotional and curriculum, Listen Up family devotional and curriculum, Dragon SeedThe Ology and God Made Boys and Girls. He and his wife, Lois, have six children and two grandchildren, and they reside in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

God Made Boys and Girls helps children understand that their gender is a gift from the God who made them and loves them. The story begins as the girls and boys at Grace Christian School are...


Advance Praise

"Are you watching the culture's rapid departure from biblical principles and wondering how to address these sensitive issues with your precious children? Marty Machowski has provided a timely resource to help you in that crucial task, his new book takes a gentle and scriptural look at what God's Word tells us about his design for the two genders. This volume offers parents a terrific way to initiate important discussions with their kids."

- Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family


"This helpful book hits all the crucial talking points in an engaging and humorous story that connects with kids (including my own). Since even young children are bombarded with confusing messages, Marty gives needed clarity on the blessing and permanence of gender. He includes vital discussion on rejecting gender stereotypes and loving those with differing world views. In fact, the parents' 'cheat sheet' alone is an invaluable resource for your home."

- David White, Director of Discipleship at Harvest USA; pastor; author of Sexual Sanity for Men and God, You, & Sex


"The message that God made boys and girls is much needed in our day. Marty Machowski does an excellent job of communicating that maleness and femaleness isn't about stereotypes but about embracing the design that our Creator has encoded into every cell of our bodies. What a tremendous resource for children!"

- Mary A. Kassian, Author of Girls Gone Wise


"In our current day, children can easily become confused about all kinds of issues that are clearly presented in the Scriptures, particularly if their home, church, and school do not provide a consistent biblical foundation. Gender issues rank high on the list of areas that children can become untethered from the Bible's teaching. This beautiful book gently teaches children to cherish their God-given gender and to love their neighbor as themselves, a timely word on a sensitive issue."

- Joel R. Beeke, President, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan


"In a culture that is increasingly accepting of gender-fluid identities, it's so important to teach our kids that gender is part of their personhood. God Made Boys and Girls is a wonderful tool for that task. It reminds children (and parents!) that being a man or woman is a gift we receive from God."

- Jared Kennedy, Pastor of Operations and Families at Sojourn Church Midtown in Louisville, KY, Author of The Beginner's Gospel Story Bible


"The sin of Babel was that human beings sought to fashion society and identity on their own terms, in denial of the loving purposes and rule of our Creator God. The current cultural challenges around sex and gender are similar attempts to deny what God has given and his purposes for human flourishing. God Made Boys and Girls: Helping Children Understand the Gift of Gender is a timely resource to equip parents to explain God's good gift of gender to their children, and to prepare children to meet a world that is bent on denying how wonderful it is to be made in the image of God, male and female, boys and girls."

- Claire Smith, Author, God's Good Design: What the Bible Really Says about Men and Women


"Clear, careful, and unashamed, God Made Boys and Girls is a great tool to help children learn from their early years the truth of God's design for them, and to help both parents and children celebrate the wonder of that design. Let this book help ground your family in the deep goodness of God's gifts."

- Mike Bullmore, Senior Pastor, CrossWay Community Church, Bristol, Wisconsin

"Are you watching the culture's rapid departure from biblical principles and wondering how to address these sensitive issues with your precious children? Marty Machowski has provided a timely...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9781645070313
PRICE US$15.99 (USD)

Average rating from 17 members


Featured Reviews

Another great book in this series. It can be a very helpful look at gender issues being faced in our churches today.
It easily can be used in churches, sunday school classes, schools and at home.
It takes a look not just at how God created us but also the science behind XX and XY chromosomes.
Thanks for a great tool to be able to use with my kids.

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An excellent book for Christian parents trying to navigate the current societal pressures with their children. This book teaches Biblical truth in a winsome, compassionate way, using a school teacher and his students. I highly recommend this to Christian families.

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Marty Machowski presents a clear articulation of a conservative Christian stance on the issue of gender identity. He properly places all identity in the creative actions of God. He presents his viewpoint in a clear, concise manner with a touch of humor and approachable illustrations. Machowski also extends his discussion into a presentation of the Gospel with words of encouragement on how to love our neighbor.

To quibble for a moment - Machowski includes what has become a fairly common phrase "God never makes mistakes" which rings similar to the phrase "God doesn't make any junk." While it would be a bit foolhardy to defend the position that God does make mistakes, it remains true (as Machowski admits later in the book) that children are born with gender defects. If God doesn't make mistakes and God's ways are perfect, then what does one say to these children? Perhaps it is more helpful to state that God's initial creative activity was without defect, but the fall has since introduced consequences that are not within God's design or will. Therefore, all children find their final and permanent identity in God's redemptive activity even though everyone will experience the consequences of the fall in their bodies in some way whether disorder, disease, or death.

Overall a helpful addition to the available materials supporting a clearly defined innate gender identity.

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With all the gender issues facing our culture, there can be confusion of our own identity. How do I fit in this world. In this timely book geared toward children celebrating the gender that they were born with the gifts that they were given, the roles can be confusing. If I am boy, then I do "boy" things and vice versa with if I am a girl, I can do only girl things. We have made gender issues in regards to our personality and preferences instead of scientific truth which is explained in child friendly detail.

The first part of the book speaks to our children in a colorful illustrations in how we love others that are different and like to do different things. How God made the world and what determines male and female. How our blood determines if we are male or female. (This is very important in giving blood as they ask how you identify as male or female vs. what gender they were born in.) The implications are great in giving blood and those that receive blood. There is always a shortage because of the strict guidelines.

I appreciate the teaching for children to accept other children and also how they explained the importance of Gender. It is somewhat contradicting that we celebrate gender reveal when the culture celebrates that we can choose what gender we want to be. The book is sensitive to those needs but holds to the truth as well. Highly Recommend.

A Special Thank You to New Growth Press and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review

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“God Made Boys and Girls: Helping Children Understand the Gift of Gender”, Marty Machowski, New Growth Press, 2019, pp. 32

“God Made Boys and Girls” is a timely, well published, and attractively age-appropriately designed little book aimed at an age level of 3 – 5, which deals with the contemporary gender revolution / crisis (or whatever the appropriate designation of this period is to be defined as) which our children are ever increasingly being brought into and especially at an alarmingly younger age.

As society changes at a quickening pace, how will Christian parents respond and especially how do we respond in an engaging way especially with our little ones in a way that is both appropriate and Biblical.

Machowski, in my opinion, authors excellent Children’s resources which also have the skill in educating adults – truly the skill of a good teacher and communicator. In “God Made Boys and Girls”, Machowski uses the simple method of telling a short story and the conversation between a teacher and his students about what it all means when we say that God made boys and girls and what gender is and that gender is God’s good gift to us.

Through story-telling, Machowski roots readers in the creation account – that God created us male and female; he reminds us of the fall of Adam and the Gospel promise of a Saviour; and even throws a little simple bit of science in there about genes and DNA that even I could understand…

For Adults there is a little help at the end of the book, ‘Truths about Gender to Share with Children’ which Machowski is able to help us bring around to a Gospel conversation.

This is without doubt going to be a really helpful little book. It’s age appropriate and may be a good way of even stimulating conversation and thoughtfulness about the subject with children of a more mature nature.

A sample of the book can be read here at the Publishers Web-Page.

I received a review copy of this book from the Publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review. I was not obliged to post a positive review.

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I received a complimentary copy of God Made Boys and Girls from the publisher - New Growth Press, through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own - and well, my five year old daughters'.

God Made Boys and Girls - as the title suggests - is a lovely story teaching us how unique God has made each one of us - boy or girl. The pages is filled with colour and pictures which makes it a fun and easy to read story to young children. Educational as well.

I would highly recommend this book for children.

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