Welcome to this month’s Rooted Parent Top 10- a list of parenting articles from across the web for the Rooted community. This list represents ten articles we believe will encourage and equip you as you parent your kids. At the end of the list we have included all of the parenting articles that ran on Rooted last month. If you have an article you’d like to contribute to the next edition of the Top Ten, please email Anna at anna@rootedministry.com.
Gospel- Centered Parenting
The Biggest Hindrance to Your Child’s Faith Isn’t Doubt. It’s Silence christianitytoday.com. “The good news for parents is we don’t need to be theologians or super-Christians to talk with our kids about our faith or theirs. We only need to be willing to go there.”
The Value of Praying Parents: A Teen’s Perspective by Emma Kruger, TGC. “I can testify that prayer will feel natural when children are exposed to it, because I grew up with prayerful parents.”
Parenting Means Wrestling Demons by Jonathan Parnell, desiringgod.org. “When we know we’re wrestling demons, disobedience doesn’t surprise so much as obedience does.”
How Not to Raise a Daughter in Purity Culture (According to Sarah’s Parents) by Sarah Condon, mbird.com. “I know of too many instances where girls have been taught, implicitly or explicitly, that the love of God is somehow contingent on their ability to remain ‘pure.’”
How to Teach Children to Deal With Bullying by Joe Carter, TGC. “… understanding bullying and knowing how to address it are important parts of developing in children a biblical, neighbor-loving worldview.”
Discipling Kids Is a Long Game of Small Interactions by Ed Drew, TGC. “As parents we must remember that spiritual growth—just like growth of all other kinds—is usually a slow, gentle, and even painful process rather than a series of big leaps.”
Youth Culture
Accommodating Parents and Their Anxious Kids by David Zahl, mbird.com. “When we inundate our kids with options, we’re injecting jolts of unnecessary conditionality into the relationship, shifting a little bit of the burden of righteousness (self-justification) onto their tiny shoulders.”
How to Help Teens Weather Their Emotional Storms by Lisa Damour, nytimes.com. “Every time I stop myself from trying to figure out what made a teenager upset, and focus instead on her right to just be upset, I find that doing so either solves the problem or helps clear the path to dealing with it.”
Is Homework Making Your Child Sick? by Amanda Enayati, cnn.com. “Research showed that excessive homework is associated with high stress levels, physical health problems and lack of balance in children’s lives; 56% of the students in the study cited homework as a primary stressor in their lives.”
Constricted by Constructs: Psychology Group Offers A Confused Take on Masculinity by Janie Cheney, World Magazine. “As many have pointed out, we need more masculinity, not less: the good kind, where fathers teach their sons to be strong and brave as well as thoughtful and courteous. But who can tell us what masculinity even is?”
New Resource
Five Things to Pray For Your Kids by Melissa Kruger. “As I was busy praying for the mundane things of my day, I also knew I needed to be praying for my children’s larger spiritual and emotional needs. I wanted to pray Scripture for my children, but often in the hustle and bustle of life, my spiritual prayers were reduced to “Please let them know you, Lord” and “May they glorify you in all they do.”
And On Rooted
Taking Your Kids on a Tour of the Old Testament by Eva Parker. “In order for us, as Christians, to fully understand the depth and breadth of our faith, we must take it upon ourselves to understand the Old Testament and the Jewish faith embodied in its chapters.”
I AM the Light by Meredith Exline. “Without investment in our personal relationship with our Heavenly Father, it will be impossible for us to train our children up in God’s will and path for their lives.”
Four Things Youth Workers Would Tell Parents About Teenagers, Social Media and Technology by Cameron Cole. “God’s ability to redeem far outweighs your caution and diligence, even superseding your child’s capacity to get in trouble.”
Ask Rooted: What Do You Wish You Could Share With Parents About Church Involvement? “As a parent, what you model and personally practice with regard to church involvement will be what impacts your student. You can say that church matters to your family, but until your family calendar reflects that priority, it is not a true priority.”
The Day I Quit Family Devotions by Joey Turner. “God led me to repent of the idol I had created of a perfect family devotional time. He freed me and my family from a weight of performance that we could never meet. He showed me that it was an unrealistic bar of excellence that kept me from opening the Word with my family and nothing else.”
How Jesus Responds to Every Parent’s Greatest Fear by Katie Polski. “The breadth of affection we have as parents is deep and wide, but God loves our kids even more than we have the ability to. But His love does not equal a pain-free life.”
