Here at the end of the year, we’re offering ten of the best articles from our collection of monthly Rooted Parent Top Tens. Each month we offer a curated Top Ten list of resources from across the web that we believe will be helpful to parents raising teenagers. You’ll find articles, podcasts, and videos that are either gospel-focused or a message of common grace. (The opinions presented in these articles do not necessarily reflect the position of Rooted Ministry.) We hope this recap encourages you. God bless you and your family in the New Year!
Surrendering Them to God by Vanessa Doughty (Fields and Valleys Substack)
“There’s nothing you did or didn’t do as a parent that Jesus didn’t die for.”
Are You Building Up or Tearing Down? by Julie Lowe (New Growth Press)
“The mark of a Christ-centered interaction is selflessness. It is speaking in order to pour forth his kindness and to imitate a glorious Savior. When we choose to treat one another in this way, we are giving what we have received from the Lord.”
Where’s My Dad? by Clarissa Moll (Hand In Hand Substack)
“My boys don’t just need mentors in their schools and neighborhood and church. In this broken and decaying world, they also need men beyond their circles of influence to emulate and follow.”
Here Be Dragons: What Christians Need to Know About Romantasy by Kathryn Butler (TGC)
“… young readers may see an intriguing cover and unwittingly end up reading grievously inappropriate content. The high schoolers I interviewed said the back-cover copy of fantasy books rarely offers clues about spice.”
‘Adolescence’ and the Surprising Difficulty of Hugging a Teen Son by Esau McCalley (The New York Times)
“Our physical affection shows them that it is OK to be strong and weak, to love and be loved.”
Her Children Arise and Call Her #Blessed by Ashley Hales (Christianity Today)
“If we’re parents, we’re likely guilty of wedding ourselves so tightly to the successes and failures of our children that we forget that children are not math equations where a particular input results in a specific output.”
The Gospel According to Youth Sports by Jonathan Carone (Mockingbird)
“The sneaky piece of youth sports no one warns you about is that watching those little kids run around a field or a court holds a mirror up to all the little pieces of us we haven’t fully processed or healed. They shine a light on the dark recesses deep within us and, before we even realize it, we begin projecting those insecurities onto our kids.”
What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones by Lenore Skenazy, Zach Rausch, and Jonathan Haidt (After Babel)
“Children want to meet up in person, no screens or supervision. But because so many parents restrict their ability to socialize in the real world on their own, kids resort to the one thing that allows them to hang out with no adults hovering: their phones.”
The Hidden Blessing of Being a Single Parent by Mike Ruamthong (SOLA)
“Only God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. He alone has no limits, which is exactly why He is worthy of trust and worship. I, however, am finite. And my limitations as a single parent have become a gracious invitation to live in light of that reality—to stop living as if I’m sovereign and start resting in the fact that He is.“
How Do I Know If My Child Needs Counseling? by Julie Lowe (New Growth Press)
“Yet there are also times when difficulties rise to a level that requires more support. How do you discern when that time has come? To answer that question, it’s helpful to consider these three categories: frequency, intensity, and duration.”
