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 most-read parenting articles 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
When Motherhood Feels Like Death by Courtney Reissig, TGC. “Motherhood is a call to death. You may find fulfillment in it, but it won’t come in the ways the world talks about fulfillment. Fulfillment in motherhood is found in following the way of the cross, in laying down your life so another may live.”
No Teen Is Too Far Gone by Jared Mellinger, Desiring God. “Parents, don’t give up. Keep praying for and loving the prodigal in your life. Remember that your Lord loves your children even more than you do.”
10 Things I With Someone Had Told Me Before Fatherhood by Eric Ortlund, erlc.com. “You really need to be connected to God and receiving from him, remembering and trusting that he’s the one who puts you first and cares for you, giving you daily bread and manna in the desert (that is, whatever you need for that day). Then the relationships can flourish, and you can give to your wife and kids. But you really have to receive from God daily for this to work.”
How to Talk to Young People About Doubt by Kara Powell, Fuller Youth Institute. “Even if you and I can agree on both of those reasons to welcome young people’s doubts, that doesn’t mean we always know how to best respond. The way we respond to doubt sends a message about God. We’ve found that when leaders and parents tend to silence young people’s doubts, young people not only learn that their church and family can’t handle doubt; they think God can’t handle doubt either.”
The Tyranny of Summer Expectations by Carrie Willard, mockingbird.com “In my city, there are children whose job it is to tend to their younger siblings, translate for their parents, and forage for food. We are very fortunate that our kids don’t have those kinds of responsibilities. And I think it’s this kind of privilege that leads to the hand-wringing of ‘meeting expectations’ during downtimes. Should we pick up extra music lessons? Learn Russian? Practice mindfulness?”
My Quiet Times Are Anything But Quiet by Rachel Jankovic, desiringgod.org. “I know my own life, and quiet is not the word for it. Every once in a while, of course, it is — a couch and coffee and quiet time. But if I were waiting for those moments to read the word, I would maybe read a chapter every week and a half. That simply can’t sustain me.”
Teen Culture
Let’s Hear It for the Average Child by Jennifer Xiao nytimes.com. “To the student with friends scattered hither and yon, across grades and groups and genders: You may feel like an outsider at every insider gathering. You may wonder what it’s like to feel deeply enfolded within a group whose very membership confers identity. How easy it would be, you may think, to be told where to go and what to wear and whom to stand next to when you get there!”
A Call to Teenagers to be Free by John Piper, desiringgod.org. “It is not easy to be a Christian teenager. You desperately want to be liked. To be rejected by friends can feel devastating. But just like this young woman, you know deep down that living to be liked is slavery. And if you belong to Jesus, that slavery may be a torment worse than rejection.”
3 Barriers to Spiritual Growth Faced by Teens Today by Lindsey Carlson, Crossway. “For Christian teenagers, growth in godliness sometimes tends to take a back seat if someone’s not behind them really speaking in their ear and reminding them that they need to be prioritizing it.”
Share With Your Teen
Living with Doubt by Andy Mineo, YouVersion.“In this exclusive video with YouVersion, Andy opens up about doubting his faith, questioning what it means to follow Christ, and sharing how Scripture helped him through those dark moments.”
Five Most Read on Rooted Parent
6 Ways to Disciple Your Kids to Pray by Joey Turner.
Ask Rooted: The Pressure to Perform by Rooted.
My First Father’s Day: Reflections From Psalm 16:11 by Conner Coskery.
Father’s Day: Christ Shines Through the Cracks by Ben Sciacca.
A Trinitarian Prayer from When Father’s Day is Hard by Davis Lacey.
