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
Don’t Feel Sorry or Feel Fear for your Kids: Raise Them up to Walk in Faith by Alex Cravens, EPM.org. “Don’t feel sorry for or fear for your kids because the world they are going to grow up in is not what it used to be. God created them and called them for the exact moment in time that they’re in.”
Practicing Humility at Home by Laura Way, familylife.com. “I think of pride as a never-ending escalator. To practice humility, we constantly, consciously choose to get off the escalator because, in terms of our identity, through Jesus we have already arrived.”
Seven Books Every Christian Should Read in College by Jerry Reindeau, jmucru.org. “I recently asked a student, who is a fairly new believer, what Christian books he has been reading. He replied that he was not much of a reader. This surprised me. This young man had gained a great deal of knowledge about his faith in a relatively short period of time. So I asked him how he had managed to accumulate so much information without reading. “TikTok mostly,” he replied.”
God’s Guidebook for the Defeated Parent: The Real Cost of Gracious Childcare by Sam Bush, mbird.com. “Parenting is not a science, a problem that can somehow be solved with the right steps outlined by the right book.”
Five Things We Are Teaching Our Kids for This Messy World by Daniel K. Eng, Sola Network. “We live in a world opposed to the ways of God in the areas of money, marriage, sex, the unborn, gender, and justice.”
Youth Culture
When Is the Best School Not the Best? by Leonard Sax, Institute of Family Studies. “It follows from this research that if we want our child to be healthy, well-off, and happy as an adult, our top priority as parents should not be to enroll our child in a high-achieving school; instead, our first priority should be to teach our child to be helpful, honest, and self-controlled.”
With Workers in High Demand, Teenagers Are Filling the Void by Jordan Schmidt, US News and World Report. ”As businesses have taken “closed indefinitely” signs out of their windows and reopened their doors, the landscape of a post-pandemic workforce is changing and depending on an unexpected demographic — teens.”
To Share With Your Teen
The Strength Gen Z Needs by Chris Colquitt, TGC. Every student and every parent should listen to this short message. “Brothers and sisters, your desire for safety and comfort is not wrong. It’s just not yet.”
Prepare Teens for Challenges to Free Speech by Chloe Folmar, TGC. “It’s possible, even probable, that new laws will stifle religious freedom and speech further in the future. As American culture and campuses grow less tolerant of our beliefs, it’s important for parents to help young Christians prepare to be faithful in the face of censorship and hostility.”
College Students: Here Are Some Thoughts On Picking a Good Church by Michael Kruger, Canon Fodder. “(1) Does this church believe the Gospel—that Jesus is the divine Son of God who died for sinners and rose from the dead?; and (2) Does this church believe the Bible—that it is the inspired word of God and the ultimate standard for all that we believe and do?”
On the Rooted blog
Rooted Recommends: What God Has to Say About Our Bodies by Rooted.
The Gospel I Wish I’d Known In High School by Rebecca Lankford.
Good News for Teenagers: Humility and Grace in the NBA Playoffs by Anna Meade Harris.
Go In Faith: Daily Prayers for My Senior by April Haberman.
Rooted Recommends: Table For Two, Biblical Counsel for Eating Disorders by Anna Meade Harris.
Check out the Rooted Student Series! Every August we feature our student series on the blog, with every article in the series written by a high school, college, or grad school student and edited by our summer editorial intern. We love to hear from teenagers themselves, because the pieces teens contribute give parents great insight into the minds and hearts of the young adults we love.
Given the craziness of the last two years, the start of school is likely to be more challenging than ever. That’s why we created our 2021 Devotions for Students series. Each devotion is written directly to teenagers and young adults and focuses on a promise of God found in Scripture. You’ll find a pdf attached at the bottom of each post if you’d like to print the devotion out and leave it on top of your child’s backpack or pillow. Here are the ones we have posted so far:
Take Your Eyes Off the Rearview Mirror by Ben Birdsong
Hardship Has No Hold On Jesus by Katie Polski
Jesus Brings the Good News That He is the Good News by Skyler Flowers
God Finishes What He Starts by Anna Meade Harris
A Plan For Exiles Like You and Me by Charlotte Getz
Stay tuned to the blog for the rest of this series; we’re only halfway through!
