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 our student series articles that ran this 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
Stop Trying to Make the Bible Relevant to Teenagers by Eric McKiddie, TGC. “Parents, youth pastors, and youth volunteers need to learn how to put the Bible’s relevance on display for students like this. Again, this isn’t to be confused with the lame efforts to make the Bible relevant. It’s the difference between adding relevance versus drawing out relevance, like the difference between adding cream and sugar to diner coffee versus bringing out the intense flavors of a French Press.”
The Divide Between the Kid and Adult Tables by Daniel Greenhouse Kim, sola.network. “The problem lies in the fact that students inevitably feeling like they don’t belong. The local church that they attend is not their church. It’s their parents’ church. There is no bridge to help them cross that gap nor do they have opportunities to be active participants in shaping ministries at the church.”
On Daughters and Dating: How to Intimidate Suitors by Jen Wilkin, TGC. “Instead of intimidating all your daughter’s potential suitors, raise a daughter who intimidates them just fine on her own. Because you know what’s intimidating? Strength and dignity. Deep faith. Self-assuredness. Wisdom. Kindness. Humility. Industriousness.”
Pressing the Mute Button Underwater by Carrie Willard, mbird.com. “There will be no end to the analysis and commentary. My kids are just at the beginning of this, and their job will be to learn to tune out the noise and focus on the feedback that matters to them. I honestly don’t see a way out of it in our rule-bound world and our law-bound hearts. My wish for my kids, and for all of us, is a dip into the cool waters of grace. We need a glimpse of the kingdom where we aren’t measured, timed, and analyzed to death. The view of the cross is what makes this possible for me.”
Teen Culture
I’ve Talked With Teenage Boys About Sexual Assault for 20 Years by Laurie Halse Anderson, Time Magazine. “Teenage boys are hungry for practical conversations about sex. They want to know the rules. They want to be the good guy, the stand-up, honorable dude. Their intentions might be good, but their ignorance is dangerous. Our society has begun talking a bit more openly about these issues, but that doesn’t mean teenage boys suddenly have all the information they need.”
Gen Z: Searching For Treasure in a Scattered World by Jiwon J. Lee, sola.network. “We must battle with Gen Z in the arena of value and worth. As youth workers and pastors, we must talk about why pursuits like money, education, and career are good and why our eyes desire them. But we must also show why these good things ultimately fall short of Christ.”
We Asked 1843 Teens What They Lied To Their Parents About… Here’s What They Said by Josh Shipp, joshshipp.com. “Remember, your goal is to create a space where your teen really can feel free to share whatever’s going on in their life, and to identify potential reasons why they’re hiding or clamming up.”
Praying for Your Teen
Wondering how to be close to your teen? by Kristen Hatton, Crosswalk.com. “As parents, and Christians, one of the biggest factors in being considered safe stems from how we handle sin–both ours and others. Do we deal honestly with it, or do we try to hide, dismiss, or justify sin? Do we gossip about or condemn others for their sin while failing to see the log in our own eye? If we are not in the habit of confessing sin, our children will fear revealing theirs to us and deem us unsafe.”
In Parenting There Are No Guarantees by Kari Kampakis, karikampakis.com. “A priest once said that our job as Christians is to plant seeds, and God will make sure those seeds take root at a time most opportune to a person’s salvation. In parenting, I take this to mean that what we do, say, or teach today may not sink into our child’s heart until ten or twenty years from now (if then) when it’s desperately needed.”
How to Pray When Your Kids Go Off to College by Sam Crabtree, Crossway.org. “God involves parents in the totality of his plan for their children. Not all parents can provide what they want for their children, but all parents can pray. God invites parents to stand in the gap. He invites us to ask!”
Share with your teen:
4 Ways to Help a Christian Friend With An Eating Disorder by Sarah Ivill, TGC. “Thankfully, the gospel teaches us that our worth isn’t based on our outward appearance, but on the person and work of Jesus Christ. And our worth isn’t based on our outward performance, but on the perfect performance of Christ on our behalf.”
Just for Fun:
Mom’s Fears About Daughter Leaving for College Channeled Into Fight About Storage Bins, The Onion. “Look, I’m not going to be there to do everything for you,” Vernon added while still waving around the $7.99 plastic container, coming as close as she would to revealing her deep, unbearable sadness over soon being separated, both emotionally and physically, from the person she loved most in the world.”
Student Series:
Jesus Is Better Than Hooking Up. Really. by Anonymous. “An essential part of the Gospel is that to Jesus, we are much more just “somebody,” especially during the “bad nights.” With Him, there is never any doubt of His love for us. In 1 Peter, we are called to cast all of our anxiety onto Him ‘because He cares for us.’ He is the ultimate refuge to turn to in times of trouble (1 Peter 5:7).”
Just Rest by Hayden Sledge. “Healing from my concussion reminds me of the sanctification process. We are broken people, who are becoming more like Christ day by day. This process is intense, difficult, yet beautiful all at once. It is a transformation that brings us closer to our heavenly Father.”
Holding Onto Faith in College by Sarah Hydinger. “This was the exact reminder I needed. In the midst of the madness that was my freshman year, I needed to put scriptural truths into daily, sometimes hourly, practice to combat the lies and insecurities that shook me. I needed to live upon the rock of Christ’s Word rather than the foundation of sand that is the word of the world.”
Worth More Than Your Weight in Gold: C.S. Lewis on Glorification by Mac Harris. “No, by the death, resurrection, and saving grace of Jesus, we are to be clothed in fine linens, reflecting the splendor and glory of God Himself, and bearing the crown of life (Rev. 19:8; James 1:12). In Heaven we will not only glorify God eternally, but remarkably, He will bestow some of His glory on us. ‘To be loved by God,’ writes Lewis, is to be ‘delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory,’ one that saturates our life with His eternal favor.”
Exposing the Dangers of Social Media by Spencer Haynes. “Young people today are growing up in an environment saturated by social media. It feels impossible to go through middle school, high school, and college without feeling the effects of Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, among other platforms. Because of social media’s presence and the ease of its consumption, we should be asking ourselves: are we affecting the culture of social media or are we allowing the culture of social media to consume us?”
Panting in the Desert: Seeking God When He Feels Like a Fake, a Figment, or Far Away by Annie Talton. “What I came to find after this season of discomfort and doubt were not answers, although the Lord has revealed Himself more clearly in many ways. What I found was a peace with the unknowing. A surrender. This could only come from letting go and falling to my knees before God, like David exemplifies in Psalm 42.”
Pursuing God in a World Full of People to Please by Lilly Gilbert. “Chasing the approval of others day after day is tiring and unfulfilling. It took me so long to realize that, and I still struggle with it often. I constantly have to remind myself that the Lord is not calling us to worldly perfection. God is calling us to actively pursue him and pursue a relationship with him, but we cannot pursue both God and the approval of the world at the same time.”
Student, Cultivate a Faith for Calvary by JD Tyler. “Far too many times I have seen high school and college students go to a conference, feeling like they are on the mountaintop of faith. But months later they find themselves in the valley and don’t know what happened. Students slip into old struggles and ask where the exciting life of following Jesus went. They ask themselves why the world hasn’t changed in remarkable ways and why God feels far away?”
Holding Onto Hope in College When It is Hard by Rebecca Hatton. “I was empty. I was beaten down. I was at the end of my rope, believing the lies that I was not good enough, too messed up, and unwanted…But Jesus said, ‘Rebecca, I am here. I have not left you.’”
What’s My Niche? by Will Leitner. “But I want to see Christ and the Gospel exalted, not me. The Lord does not exalt the messenger over the message, the container over the treasure inside. The Lord’s power is in His Word and Gospel, not the uniqueness of man. As Christians, we are weak, feeble servants overshadowed by the glorious shining light of the glory of God.”
