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
Help! My Teen Wants to Go Overseas by Lori McDaniel, imb.org. “…as you continue to hold your teenager tightly in your heart, you learn to hold them loosely in your hands.”
3 Ways to Pass On Faith to the Next Generation by Tim Keller, TGC. “In summary, we must be consistent in our behavior, wise about reality, and warmly personal in our faith.”
Nothing Brings Parents Greater Peace by Marty Machowski, desiringgod.org. “Prayer is no longer a last resort for me… Nothing brings me greater peace than to entrust my parenting challenges to Jesus. Sure, I struggle with fear and anxiety from time to time, but I know that I am never alone.”
Discipling Kids in Light of Competing Priorities and Busy Schedules by Deana Menikoff, radical.net. “This is the thought that should be uppermost on your mind in all you do for your child. In every step you take about them, in every plan, and scheme, and arrangement that concerns them, do not leave out that mighty question, “How will this affect their souls?”
The Top Reasons Young People Drop Out of Church by Griffin Paul Jackson, Christianity Today. “It’s not that most rejected the church… for the most part, they simply lose track of the church and stop seeing it as important to their life.”
No Guarantees by Jeanie B. Cheaney, World Magazine. “Parents don’t create children of God—God Himself does that (John 1:12). Raising them is a hands-on enterprise, but when it’s time to take our hands off, they are their own.”
Sabbath Rest Is For Busy Moms, Too by Laura Wifler, TGC. “Yet, in Christ, our striving for ‘good mom’ status was nailed to the cross. When Jesus defeated death, he deemed us righteous, loved, and accepted. It’s because of Christ’s actions—not ours—that we find our rest in the Lord, rather than in a completed to-do list.”
Youth Culture
By Mollycoddling Our Children, We’re Fueling Mental Illness in our Children by Jonathan Haidt and Pamela Paresky, The Guardian. “…there are good reasons to suspect that by depriving our innately antifragile kids of the wide range of experiences they need to become strong, we are systematically stunting their growth. We should let go – and let them grow.”
You Can Track Almost Everything Your Child Does Online. Here’s Why That May Not Be a Good Idea by Lisa Damour, Time. “Regardless of how closely we decide to monitor our teens’ lives digitally, no amount of surveillance can take the place of having a sturdy, working relationship with them.”
Depression 101: Dallas Schoolkids Learn About Mental Health by Jamie Stengle, US News and World Report. “Dozens of Dallas-area schools are among a growing number around the world that are teaching children how to spot the signs of depression in themselves and others.”
And on Rooted:
Resting In Him Because I Can’t Do It All by Dawson Cooper. “But I was never meant to be God-like by being everything to everybody all the time. Because if I were, that leaves no room, no place, no need for God in my life or yours. God’s idea of good for my life means that I will rely on him in the middle of my limits.”
New Year, Unchanging God by Amy Bond. “Our hope rests in the unchanging God who says January 1 comes every day.”
To the Parent Struggling With a Struggling Teen by Kristen Hatton. “Knowing that parents are the greatest influencers in the lives of their teens, I realize we cannot completely absolve ourselves from playing a part in our teens’ struggles. But we could do everything right and our child might still struggle, or everything wrong and our child could stand secure in Christ. Ultimately God is over their paths, trials and pain. And His ways for His children are better than ours- even when we can’t possibly see how.”
A Nighttime Blessing of Gospel Love by Seth Stewart. “Grace, grace, grace defines God’s fatherhood. But would my children define mine the same way?”
The Importance of Praying Scripture For Our Kids by Rooted. “I need much more than good advice. I need the commands and expectation of Scripture to keep me from complacency in parenting, and the grace and mercy presented in Scripture to save me from guilt in parenting.”
What It’s Like When the Kids Grow Up: A Conversation Between Two Moms by Carolyn Lankford and Anna Meade Harris. “I will offer that my grown children don’t look to their dad and me as quickly for a solution. They seem to have gotten the memo that their parents are finite, fallible people who are as vulnerable to circumstances as they are.”
A Meditation on Jesus’ Relationship With His Earthly Parents by Carolyn Lankford.”I find guidance for parenting at every stage of a child’s life when I consider the stages in Jesus’ relationship with his earthly parents.”
Parents, Don’t Treat the Bread of Life Like Green Beans by Seth Stewart. “He made bread to reveal himself as the only bread, the only agenda, the only message, the only way parents need. In total contradiction to the expectations of fathers and mothers, ancient and modern, the “bread” we need is not a “what” but a “who.”
