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
How to Start a Gospel Conversation After Watching a Movie by Catherine Parks, ERLC. “At first when he began a conversation after the movie, it was awkwardly silent. Like strengthening an unused muscle, learning to look more deeply at movies takes time, and doing it collectively can feel strange. But Erik and his friends—both believers and nonbelievers—have learned so much from each other through this simple practice of asking questions about symbols, messages, themes, longing, and worldviews.”
3 Benefits of Teaching Teenagers the Hard Parts of Scripture by Caroline Saunders, ERLC. “During the teen years (which is a prickly passage of another sort), engaging with the awkward, upsetting, or mind-boggling parts of Scripture is important. Shepherding teenagers through hard passages will bolster their personal discernment as they navigate awkward, upsetting, and mind-boggling scenarios in their lives, it will engage their curiosity, and it will strengthen their spiritual muscles for a lifetime of faith.”
Four Lessons for My Son: Fathering (with brown skin) by Tymarcus Ragland, Christian Parenting. “Here are four of the lessons I feel are critical for anyone fathering with brown skin. And while they are directed to my son, I hope they will speak to you wherever you are in your parenting journey, no matter the color of your skin.”
Practical Faithfulness in the Throes of Motherhood by Glenna Marshall, Crossway. “Know that God’s mercy abounds every morning, and his grace covers you. Tomorrow is a new day with brand-new mercies. The Lord loves you, he is working toward your spiritual growth, and he is not done sanctifying you. It doesn’t matter so much how yesterday looked. Come to him, and he will give you the rest you really need.”
Parenting is About Treasuring: Four Ways to Nurture Joy in God by Ryan Lister, DesiringGod. “When God calls us to be fathers and mothers, he calls us to be stewards of our children’s joy. Which means that a lot of what we do centers on helping our joy-obsessed children find their greatest joy.”
Youth Culture
How Teens are Using Anonymous Google Docs and Enlisting a YouTube Star to Out Allegedly Racist Classmates by Abram Brown, Forbes. “At a time in America when offensive statues and executives alike are toppling, a similar reckoning is occurring, out of view of most adults, among the country’s teenagers and college students.”
Locked-Down Teens Stay Up All Night, Sleep All Day by Nicole Friedman, Wall Street Journal. “’If it keeps going, it really gets hard to shift back to a normal schedule,” Dr. Sterni said. “We’re really telling people, our young patients, please try and stay on as normal a schedule as possible.”
The Rise of Tik Tok by CNBC, YouTube. “TikTok is the most downloaded app of 2020, as quarantines have spurred more and more users to hop onboard and learn about the latest dance trends and memes. But the app also faces a slew of regulatory hurdles, privacy concerns, and allegations of censorship, issues experts say will be new CEO Kevin Mayer’s top priority.”
Racial Justice
Trauma Won’t Heal if We Won’t Listen: Ahmaud Arbery and Our Long History by Jen Oshman, Jen Oshman. “We may not be willfully racist, but are we quick to listen and slow to speak? I think we are far more likely to deflect than to reflect. We are more eager to explain away another’s grief than we are to sit with their story. It is easier for us to write off racial incidents than it is to look them full-on and admit that maybe, just maybe, we might be part of a cultural ecosystem that allows racial harm at best and creates it at worst.”
To Share With Your Kids
Christians Aren’t Allowed to Cancel Anyone by Anne Kennedy, Patheos. “But 2020 is the year when all of human sin is gathered up and displayed mainly by means of social media. It is the way that people are cancelled. The wickedness of human desires is right there, in real life, and on the screen, and humanity recoils from having to see it, trying to shield the eyes of the heart from enduring any such sin.”
I’m Thinking It Over by Alan Jacobs, The American Conservative. “In short, peer pressure is always terrible, and social media are a megaphone for peer pressure. And when you use that megaphone all the time you tend to forget that it’s possible to speak at a normal volume.”
Summer Extras
Why J.I. Packer Reads Mystery Novels (Or, in Defense of Light Reading) by Justin Taylor, TGC. “Since you were 6 years old you’ve been reading things that people told you to read. Now you don’t have to do that anymore, unless you’re going to graduate school. Go out and read what strikes you as being fun.”
We Still Have to do Summer? By Lisa Tyson, Christian Parenting. “When I think about a summer without my children, I don’t want summer to ever end—even if we have already spent two and half months (and counting) quarantined together.”
From Rooted
When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder: A Story for Parents by Mary Beth Johnston
Praying with Teens: The Prayer Journal by Heather Holleman
Top Ten for Youth Workers and Parents: Racial Justice Resources by Rooted
Grace for the Non-Supermom by Jenny Lisa
Finding the Father: Practical Steps Along the Pilgrimage by Greg Meyer
