January- February Rooted Parent Top Ten
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 several of the pieces that ran on Rooted Parent over the 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
You Didn’t Do ‘Nothing’ Today by Emma Scrivener, TGC. “Maybe you feel like your life is achieving little. But by God’s grace, maybe you are doing far more than you think.”
‘Ford V. Ferrari’ and the Frailty of Fatherhood by Brett McCracken, TGC. “… real leadership is not paralyzed by what we can’t control, nor is it naive about what we can. Rather, it is driven by a sober-minded, steadfast commitment to stewarding the gifts God gives—our talents, our loved ones, the open roads we find before us—in the time we have.”
The Inefficient Ministry of Motherhood by Amanda Criss, desiringgod.org. “For mothers of young children as well as all Christian women, when we are willing to be spent in inefficiency for the most tender, impressionable, and helpless among us, we are choosing the good portion that will not be taken away from us.”
A Breakthrough in Our Family Devotions by Erik Raymond, TGC. “But this year, perhaps more than ever, before we have such a weighty burden to wrap in everyone’s personal devotions into our family devotions. Even amid the busyness, we wanted to increase our time together in the Word.”
The Apologetic of Being Mom: Why Mothers Must Be Theologians by Abigail Dodds, ftc.com. “We want a day without spills or chaos. He doesn’t give us that, but he’s willing to give us something much bigger: the grace in Christ to be a patient, humble, loving mom in the midst of spills and chaos.”
Four (Good) Ways Your Hard Kid is Changing You by Christine Gordon, TGC. “As their parents, we quickly come to the end of our own physical and emotional selves, forcing us to beg for patience, endurance, and wisdom—often on a daily basis.”
Youth Culture
The Nuclear Family Was A Mistake by David Brooks, The Atlantic. “The shift from bigger and interconnected extended families to smaller and detached nuclear families ultimately led to a familial system that liberates the rich and ravages the working-class and the poor.”
Billie Eilish Can Help Us Understand Teenage Anxiety by Brad M. Griffin, Christianity Today. “The Grammy-award winning teen’s dark music can help us have necessary conversations with our children.”
The Outside Influence of Your Middle School Friends by Lydia Denworth, The Atlantic. “The intensity of feelings generated by friendship in childhood and adolescence is by design.”
Why Secular Culture, Progressive Christians, and Traditional Christians Disagree on What It Means to Love Others by Natasha Crain, christianmomthoughts.com. “This is why Christians so often clash with culture on what love is—we have different objectives. Christians strive to love others given God’s standards. The secular world strives to love others given self-defined standards.”
Resources for Parents on Anxiety
The past few weeks the Fuller Youth Institute (a branch of Fuller Theological Seminary) has posted several articles and four episodes of a podcast, all aimed at informing parents about teen anxiety and offering ways we can help them. Many of the articles are extremely practical, and will give us tools we can put in our kids’ hands for learning to manage their anxiety. Check out:
We Need to Talk About Anxiety by Rachel Dodd
What’s the Difference Between Stress and Anxiety? By Aaron Rosales
Helping Adolescents Work Through a Rising Tide of Anxiety by Rhett Smith
Here is the link to the first of four podcasts published so far: Faith in an Anxious World Parenting Podcast.
Black History Month
Black History Recommendations by Dominique Gilliard, The Witness. “Here’s a list of Black History recommendations that will take more than a month to engage. There are resources listed for adults, high schoolers, middle schoolers, and elementary school students. There is also a Black History soundtrack that lyrically roots this learning in lament, resilience, resistance, pride, and celebration because our history (and present) is a prophetic mixture of these elements.”
The Gospel Is Rest
For Adults, Snow Days Feel Like Divine Permission to Rest Helena Fitzgerald, the Atlantic. “Unexpected time off after a snowfall feels like a gift because it removes the pressure to be productive.”
On Rooted
Talk to Your Kids About Failure- And Share Stories From Your Life by Kari Kampakis. “God created us for more. He came to save us as sinners, not saints, and to make us new creations through Christ. Through this lens, we gain the courage to see our failures clearly and even boast about them at times because God’s power is made perfect in weakness.”
Black History Month Resources from Dorena Williamson by Rooted. “ Together with her husband, Dorena Williamson has a ministry of reconciliation and bridge-building among diverse communities in the church and around the country. We asked Williamson to recommend some resources for families who want to discuss building bridges between races in our country.”
The Loneliness of Parenting Alone by Anna Meade Harris. “Trusting our invisible, intangible God for wisdom, security, provision, and protection stretches my faith, sometimes it seems, beyond capacity. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”
Opening Our Eyes to God’s Grace by Gil Murdock. “Jesus wants us in a posture of prayer, seeking for God to deliver a greater change in our kids and families, even if we’ve given up. He wants us to stare down hope and faith with a fervent passion to see God’s grace administered in fresh and dynamic ways for our households.”
The Single Word That Saved Me – And My Teens- From Jealousy and Comparison by Heather Holleman. “As the years passed, our family grew in our understanding of our seated identity. We realized that in this seat in the heavenly realms, we have everything we need, all the time, because we’re with Jesus at the best table.”
Dismantling the Idol of Competence by Net Wade. “Everything I thought I knew from working as a guidance counselor at a large high school and as a youth director at a church did not prepare me for the glaring and aching incompetence I face daily as a parent.”
