Rooted Parent Top Ten: August 2023

Welcome to the Rooted Parent Top Ten, a curated list of resources from across the web that we believe will be helpful to parents raising teenagers. Here you’ll find articles, podcasts, and videos to support you in gospel- centered discipleship and interpreting youth culture. While most are gospel focused, others are included because they include a message of common grace. (The opinions presented in these articles do not necessarily reflect the position of Rooted Ministry.) At the end, you’ll find Rooted resources compiled from the last month’s new offerings. We hope this resource is helpful!

Gospel-Centered Parenting

A Letter for the Middle School Years by Jen Wilkin, Risen Motherhood. “Middle school heralds the clear turning point where we must let them fail while the consequences for failure are still low and where we must let them succeed on their own steam so they learn to trust their own God-given abilities.”

A Letter for the High School Years, Missie Branch, Risen Motherhood.“Whether you are the mom of an easygoing Nobel-prize-winning peacemaker or a headstrong future lawyer, remember: your precious children are a gift to you and, more importantly, a gift to the world. We have never owned our kids, and we can’t keep them to ourselves.”

Keep Your Cool While Cheering For Your Kid by Darin White and Ryan Leib, TGC. “By grounding our identity—and theirs—in Christ, we better navigate the highs and lows of our children’s athletic endeavors.”

Help for Family Devotions by Zach Sparkman, Growing Fathers. “If you’ve ever been discouraged about family devotions, here are five encouragements to help your family navigate the frustrations.”

Pass On a Faith Teenagers Can Grow Into by Mike McGarry, New Growth Press. “When students are invited to engage the Scriptures with the questions they’re facing, they’ll discover the Bible has a lot to say.”

Every Mom Teaches Theology: Practical Ways to Go Deeper with God by Andrea Hoaglund, Desiring God. Though this appears to address moms of little ones, the principles here are applicable to moms with kids at any age, as well as to dads.

Teen Culture

Barbie and Taylor Swift Are Bringing Us Together by Beth Felker Jones, Christianity Today. “The pandemic interrupted my kids’ lives at a crucial developmental point. For them, there’s almost no “before” the pandemic in their teen years—there’s only the newly opening of the after. And in that wake, what if what my kids want is communal meaning—the kind that is supposed to mark our local churches?”

Shepherding Children Through Exposure to Pornography by Darby Strickland, CCEF. “But I want to encourage you that teaching your children simple truths can springboard you into deeper and more difficult conversations about God’s design for sex and his desired protection of them.”

Teens Need Something They Can’t Find Online by Collin Hanson, Crossway. “Among my brothers and sisters in Christ, I find the grace of God instead of a Twitter mob. I can always repent, ask forgiveness, and receive assurance of pardon. I find a shelter from the online storm.”

No One Knows Exactly What Social Media is Doing to Teens by Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic. (A throwback to July, but worth reading.) “Studies showed that social-media use increased well-being for some adolescents, harmed other adolescents, and didn’t affect still others at all, so Lee had a feeling that some of these differences could be explained by the teens’ mindsets.”