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
Why Boys Don’t Wrestle Girls: Lessons for Our Future Men by Trent Rogers, Desiring God. “…my goal is to train my son to stand with conviction, even when it’s costly. While he’s still in our home, I can gently shepherd, comfort, and train him for the larger sacrifices that will inevitably come his way.”
Walking with Children and Teens Through Doubts About Christianity by Faith Chang, SOLA Network. “In your family and at church, you can teach children to pray honestly about their questions, modeling humility, candor, and trust in God even in the midst of doubt. Churched kids, in particular, may need the assurance that since God already knows their questions, they don’t have to be afraid or ashamed to bring them to him.”
What 80s Parents Got Right About Pop Culture by E. Stephen Burnett, TGC. “In spite of my critiques, I don’t think Christians should reject every old idea about pop-culture engagement. I think we should wisely update these approaches to cultural engagement for today’s negative world, taking care to discern when we should resist elements of pop culture as fundamentally idolatrous and when to receive them as common-grace gifts…”
Fathers, Do You Provoke Your Children? by Chrys Jones, Gospel-Centered Discipleship. “ When the frustrations and trials of life push us beyond our limits, we have the Spirit of Christ present with us, still bearing fruit and helping us fight for our children rather than fighting against them.”
Youth and Family Culture
Social Media Is Causing Our Children to Suffer by Joe Carter, TGC. “The U.S. surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, has issued a warning about the potential risks of social media on children’s mental health. Here’s why Christian parents should be concerned—and what we can do to protect our kids.”
Vampires, Zombies, and Myths About Dads by Linda Nielson, IFStudies.com. “Sadly, negative stereotypes about fathers are still rampant and powerful enough literally to fill a book, like my latest, Myths & Lies About Dads: How They Hurt Us All.”
Love Means We Fight: Family and Grace in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 by Ian Olsen, mbird.com. “Loving someone always means being willing to fight for them. To pursue them like a foolish shepherd who seeks after her lost sheep, traveling across hill and valley, thorns and rivers, until the beloved is brought home.”
To Share with Your Teenager
Oklahoma Softball Players Grace Lyons, Jayda Coleman and Alyssa Brito say their joy is in the Lord, YouTube. Good grief. HURRY to share this with your kids and watch it a few times yourself. “We know this game is giving us the opportunity to glorify God.”
Wrestling With Parental Guidance by Shelby Abbott, New Growth Press. “As a college student, it’s important to strike a healthy balance between autonomous decision-making, and respect for your parents’ wishes. It’s easy when both of your desires line up and everything is harmonious, but when there’s a difference of opinion, how do you appropriately wrestle with their disagreement?”
Embrace Your Otherness by Jen Wilkin, TGC. An oldie but a goodie, and clearly the Oklahoma softball players in the clip above have done just that. “‘Otherness’ is a sensation not to be dulled or diminished but to be cultivated and cherished. So, though it goes against every mothering instinct, I will not pull the thorn from your flesh, not because I want to withhold comfort, but because there is no true comfort in a lie. This world is not our home.”
On Rooted
Ask the Experts: Finding a Better Story on Anxiety with Liz Edrington and Alice Churnock
Ask the Experts: Parenting Ahead with Kristen Hatton
Blood Is Not Thicker Than Water by Becky Paynter
How God Reminded One Mom Of His Constant Faithfulness Over the Course of a Three Hour Taylor Swift Concert by Anne Sanford
The Ultimate Judge: How Jesus As Judge Shapes Our Parenting by Tracey Rector
How Knowing Jesus As Our Eternal Christ and Creator Changes Our Parenting by Emily Menendez
Rooted Recommends: Go Outside, a Devotional for College Students and Young Adults by Anna Meade Harris
