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 Parenting
Raising Black Boys With Hope by Kristie Anyabwile, TGC. “As the mom of a black boy in America, how does God’s Word help me dispel my fears as I raise my son? I have taken my fear to Psalm 119, and this is what the Lord has shown me.”
On Letting My Kids Go, and Realizing They Were Never Mine in the First Place by Scott Sauls. “How comforting it is to know that our children are just that—Abba’s children—dearly beloved daughters of the covenant, held and kept by the One who alone is Father of us all.”
How to Help Your Kids Read the Bible by Chris Morphew, thegoodbook.com. “Ultimately, there’s no magic formula to any of this – because ultimately it’s not our efforts that are going to transform the lives of our kids.”
Your Teenager Needs Discipleship podcast with Jen Wilkin and Melissa Kruger, TGC. “When children are in middle school and high school, they know what it means to be a student, and yet that is precisely when often in the church we treat their faith as though it is not study-worthy. And so at the point that they are being asked to do calculus and physics, we begin saying, ‘You know what? Just spend 10 minutes each morning doing a devotional with your sacred text.’ I think that’s the wrong message.”
Not Wired for This World by Kathryn Butler, Desiring God. “Yet sojourners who share our accents also dwell in our midst. They sit beside us in familiar clothes each week and speak our same language. Yet they live like strangers, because every day they wander through a world that their nervous systems can’t manage.”
When Parenting Isn’t Enjoyable by Kristen Wetherell, TGC. “But when we place on ourselves the unrealistic burden of constantly enjoying our kids, our goal is misdirected, and our expectations are naïve.”
Youth Culture
10 Reasons Teens Have So Much Anxiety Today by Amy Morin, Psychology Today. “I suspect the rise in anxiety reflects several societal changes and cultural shifts we’ve seen over the past couple of decades. Here are the top 10 reasons.”
How to Think About Screen Time and Our Kids by Jason Thacker, ERLC. “This digital landscape is unprecedented in size and scale, leaving many children and parents glued to their devices as we gloss over many of the potential downfalls that come with the rise of online entertainment. Are we to simply accept the fact that this is the way things will be from now on, or do we have options to disciple our children in ways that defy the cultural momentum and point them to Christ?”
Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers by Joe Pinsker, the Atlantic. “Daniel Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia… also talked about the importance, which many researchers have examined, of the number of books in one’s childhood home.”
To Share With Your Teens
30 Books Every Christian Should Read Before Age 30 by David Qaoud, Gospel Relevance. This is a fun one to share with your kids who love to read; it includes only Christian non-fiction and might be a good source for Christmas gift ideas!
What the Persecuted Church Can Teach Gen Z by Sara Barrett, TGC. “I’m 19. I’ve considered myself a Christian for almost all my life. I’ve never been persecuted, threatened, or imprisoned for my faith. And I can’t help wondering: if I were Roy, Mee, or a teenager in China, would I follow Christ so faithfully?”
And On Rooted
Dear Parent of a High School Senior by Anna Meade Harris. “I do not want to lose this time to nostalgia or to fear of the future.”
Hope for a Discouraging Dad by Joey Turner. “Parenting hasn’t become “easy” for me by any stretch of the imagination, nor am I or my children free from anger and discouragement at times. But the good news of Jesus continues to free me to trust the sovereignty of God as I strive to obey his commands to father my children in grace.”
Half-Truths: Jesus Wants Us to Do Our Best by Ingram Link. “Our desire for ourselves and for our children should be that we would do His best, not our best. Keeping our eyes on Christ and being obedient to the life he has called us to often leads us down a road we had not planned or imagined. In order to do the best that God has called us to we must seek him, serve him, and submit to him.”
For Parents: Talking and Thinking Points on Kanye West’s Conversion by Mike McGarry. “Upon listening to the album twice through and seeing all the buzz on social media, I took a few minutes to write down some quick thoughts about Kanye’s conversion to Christianity, and how we might respond.”
Rooted in Prayer: How the Word Teaches Us to Pray by Anna Meade Harris. “As I pray, the Holy Spirit leads me to look beyond temporary circumstances and behavior issues, to pray that the character of Christ will be formed in my child.”
Two prayer guides, with links to pdfs for printing: Rooted in Prayer: A Guide for One-on-One Prayer Time with Your Student and A Guide for Students Praying for the Adults in Their Lives.
