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
Give Your Children all of Your Attention. Some of the Time. (Harriet Connor, TGC)
“Let’s plan to give our children all of our attention some of the time, and let’s see our necessary distractions as opportunities for our children to learn skills for real life in God’s world.”
Motherhood in an Age of Anxiety: Your Story Isn’t Good Enough (Sarah Condon, mbird.com)
“We are under such incredible pressure to get it all right, that it only seems natural to look for those fellow mothers in the trenches who are getting some of it wrong.”
Friday Fodder: Truth or No Truth? What Are You Teaching? (Walt Mueller, CPYU)
“Without a deep understanding of human depravity and God’s holiness, we cannot fully appreciate and respond to His mercy, grace, and love.”
The Prayers Our Teens Need Most (Michele Morin, desiringgod.org)
“Praying Jesus’s words for my teens lifts my eyes beyond every immediate need to the greater and more pressing concerns that Jesus voiced for his followers of all time, those who were with him at the Last Supper and those who sit around our dining room tables today.”
Opportunity vs. Disruption (Interview with Paul Tripp, God-Centered Mom podcast)
Tripp focuses on the central task of parenting — teaching your children that God, not self, is at the center of our lives — and demonstrates how every interaction with our kids is part of a lifelong process of demonstrating His love and His sovereignty.
Youth Culture
“Eighth Grade” and the Horror of Being Unknown (Brett McCracken, TGC)
“The film is not just about the vulnerabilities of adolescence. It’s about the vulnerabilities of all of us in this world, where the human longings we’ve always had—to be known, loved, significant—are amplified and misdirected by the temptations of technology.”
Should Christian Parents Ever Give Their Kids a Cellphone? (Podcast with Russell Moore, Scott Sauls and Trevin Wax)
“While parents are right to be concerned about the kind of content kids may access on their phones, they also need to consider the formative influence the phone itself will have on a person. In fact, we need to consider what kind of shaping effect smartphones might be having not just on kids, but on us as adults as well.”
Ready, Aim, Hire a ‘Fortnite’ Coach: Parents Enlist Videogame Tutors for Their Children (Sarah Needleman, wsj.com)
“It’s not the violence or the addiction of the hit game that bothers mom and dad — it’s the losing.”
The Overparenting Crisis in School and at Home (Interview on NPR with Julie Lythcott-Haims and Jessica Lahey, transcript)
“Kids are anxious, afraid, and risk-averse because parents are more focused on keeping their children safe, content and happy in the moment than on parenting for competence. Furthermore, we as a society [are] so obsessed with learning as a product — grades, scores and other evidence of academic and athletic success — that we have sacrificed learning in favor of these false idols.”
New Study Sheds Light on Depression in Teens and Parents (Rhitu Chatterjee interviews Professor Myrna Weissman, transcript, NPR)
Scientific evidence that treating depression in children is helpful to parents and vice versa.
On Rooted this month:
How Long O Lord: The Power of Patience (Gordon Bals)
“It helps to recognize that patience is an active word that is more other-centered than self-centered. Patience is the ability to see unformed character in a person and the desire to help them form it. We offer patience on behalf of others – it is not just about our lives being more peaceful.”
Youth Group and the Reluctant Teen (Amy Bond)
“If I have learned anything during this season of parenting, it’s that teens are more receptive to conversations when we talk WITH them and not TO them.”
Wisdom from New Morning Mercies (Anna Meade Harris)
“Today you will once again demonstrate your need for wisdom’s work. Don’t resist. Reach out for help with a thankful heart; wisdom has come to be with you forever.”
Parenting the Prodigal Son (Carolyn Lankford)
“As hard as it is, parents have to let God do his saving work through their beloved child’s suffering.”
HTH: Three Reminders For Our College- Bound Kids (Kristen Hatton)
“By God’s grace, knowing the true condition of their hearts and the reality of the world around them will help point our kids to live in greater dependence on Jesus.”
Dear Youth Pastor: Parents Want to Partner With You (Amy Bond)
“It is fitting that other believers invest in our kids and point them to Christ. We will never be perfect parents, but there is joy to be found in a partnership with between parents and the ministry our children attend.”
One Mom’s Perspective on Sorority Recruitment (Ingram Link)
“Remember, no matter what happens, what you know about God is still true. He has not changed. Your daughter is a child of the living God.”
