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
How the Cross Reshapes the Home podcast with Collin Hanson and Russell Moore, TGC. “Family is not the gospel. If you think that family is the source of ultimate meaning in your life, then you will expect your family to make you happy, to live up to your expectations.”
How to Fight Fears As A Parent video with Lauren Chandler, TGC. Lauren Chandler describes how she fights the fears that come with parenthood: with prayer and trust in the promises of God.
How to Raise Kids in a Pornographic Culture interview with John Piper, Desiring God. Children in the same family treated the same way can be resistant or compliant, and our goal is not external conformity to rules; it’s inward love for God and his way.
What Will Make Our Children Happy? by Nicole Whitacre, Desiring God. Of course, we cannot manufacture happiness in the hearts of our children, but we can position them in the way of happiness. We do this by setting an example of satisfaction in God’s word, talking about our love for God’s word, and teaching our children the daily habit of reading God’s word.
Six Ways to Ruin Your Children by Jeff Robinson, TGC. I am at my worst as a father when I assume the role of sinless savior. That place belongs to Christ alone. When I say things like, “I didn’t act that way when I was your age” (a lie if ever there was one), then I confuse them as to why they need the gospel in the first place.
Teen Culture
Phantom Community: What’s the Power of Talk in a Digital Age? By Art Bamford, Fuller Youth Institute. “Whereas digital media seems to have damaged the way adults interact with one another, it is now making it seemingly impossible for young people to learn how to have relationships in the first place.”
How Men View Women by Walt Mueller, CPYU. “The idolatry of beauty is ruining us individually and as a society.”
The Teens Who Rack Up Thousands of Followers by Posting the Same Photo Everyday by Taylor Lorenz, The Atlantic. “It’s personal-life captions for not such a personal picture. It takes the pressure off of having to post a pic of your face or something. We don’t have to edit any pics; the followers know what they’re getting. We can just post a quirky caption about our life at the moment and they relate.”
2 Million US Teens Are Vaping Marijuana Associated Press, U.S.News and World Report. “E-cigarettes typically contain nicotine, but many of the battery-powered devices can vaporize other substances, including marijuana. Results published Monday mean 2.1 million middle and high school students have used them to get high.”
A Parent’s Guide to Vaping by Michael O. Schroeder, U.S.News and World Report. Increasingly research has revealed toxins in e-cigarettes and how vaping increases the likelihood a teen will go on to smoke cigarettes later.
And on Rooted:
Book Review: Alongside: Loving Teenagers With the Gospel by Anna Meade Harris. The title itself best sums up the intent and achievement of Alongside. As youth workers work alongside parents to walk alongside teenagers, together we learn to live alongside the One who left heaven to love alongside us.
Leave the Cowlick Alone: The Art of Effective Criticism by Alice Churnock. When we retreat to our Lord, He meets us where we are, not where we “should” be. Do we do the same for our kids?
Waiting On God in the Days of Amazon Prime by Dawson Cooper. “The Bible is literally full of people waiting. Our struggle to wait is nothing new.”
Rooted Resources: Recommendations for Teens by Rooted. A biblically based book can help us to teach without actually opening our mouths, and often a good author can say for us that we struggle to put into words. With that in mind, Rooted parents and youth pastors compiled Recommendations for Teens to help you get started.
Parenting From Proverbs by Ben Beswick. “As parents, we naturally desire to set our children on the “right path” and to do everything we possibly can to ensure their future protection and success. It is only natural, then, when our precious child takes a wrong turn, that we both fear for their safety and question whether or not the words of Proverbs are true. In the midst of that confusion, it is important to remember a few basic parenting truths that can be found in the world of Proverbs.”