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. 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
To My Kids: I Wish Your Lives Were Better (Kathryn Maack, TGC)
“To the parent struggling with guilt, battling perfectionism, or grieving that your children are experiencing hard things: may the light of Jesus, for you and your child, break through your darkness and bring great hope.”
Parenting: Great Expectations (Kristen Welch, wearethatfamily.com)
“We are finally free not to construct our identity around our performance… Instead I want to free them: so any obedience, any moves toward goodness and holiness, flow out of being utterly accepted by God. Utterly loved.”
A Better Mom is a Broken Mom (Kristen Wetherell, Desiring God)
“The less of me, the more his resurrection life can take over my motherhood, making me more like him — changing my desires, loosening my iron grip on worldly gain, and satisfying me with himself. To be a broken mom means to give up my idea of “better” and submit myself to God’s best for me: my sanctification.”
Youth Culture
Adults Who Went Undercover at a High School Discover 7 Things People Don’t Realize About Life for Teenagers Today (Mark Abadi, Business Insider)
This is a fascinating article detailing the finding of several young adults who went undercover in a high school in Kansas City.
Weight Watchers For Teens: Helpful Or Harmful? (Anna Medaris Miller, US News and World Report)
Weight Watchers has recently announced that it will open its program to teens for free, in the hopes that they will be able to support young women in developing healthy eating habits. In this article, experts either support or critique the company’s efforts.
Teen Sexting Has Become Even More Common, Research Says (Alexandra Sifferlin, TIME)
Twenty-seven percent of teens report receiving sexts, while fifteen percent report sending them. Parents, youth workers, and teachers need to be aware what’s going on on the smartphones, and talk to kids about the ramifications of sexting.
Parenting Skills
How To Teach Boys to Respect Women (Russell Moore, russellmoore.com)
Moore, as father to five sons, recognizes the gravity of teaching young men to value all women as “joint-heirs” of the Kingdom. This article introduces some ways that parents, and especially fathers, can consciously parent their sons toward a Biblical understanding of God’s design for both genders.
When You Realize You Are a Whole Lot Like Your Kids (Katie Blackburn, coffeeandcrumbs.net)
“But I think [parenting] is hard not just because children need a lot of grace and a lot of correction, but because I need a lot of grace and a lot of correction, and that’s not an easy truth to sit with. I am so much quicker to see my children’s need for repentance and forgiveness more than my own, but when I really think about it, I am a whole lot like my kids.”
Trusting God With Our Children’s Pain (Sarah Walton, Desiring God)
Watching their children suffer is one of the hardest things parents have to bear. Walton reminds parents that their children learn to endure patiently and to trust in God’s faithfulness during seasons of suffering. Children also learn that “sin is more dangerous than pain,” and yet pain is the only way they can learn these truths.
Talking With Teens
Three Things I Wish Parents – And Teens – Knew About Pot (Christine Carter, US News and World Report)
Here’s one you may want to share with your kids. Parents and teens alike need to know that the changes in marijuana have made it more dangerous than it used to be. Add to this the fact that marijuana affects the developing brain of a teen very differently than a mature adult brain, and and you have hard evidence that teens need to be well informed about the risks of smoking pot.
