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
Every Good Parent Will Have Regrets: Advice to My 30-Year-Old Self by by Dave Harvey, revdaveharvey.com. “Charles Spurgeon once said, “It is a heroic faith that believes Christ in the face of a thousand contradictions.” I’ve wondered whether he was thinking about raising kids.”
In Praise of Third-Party Parents by Joey Goodall, mbird.com. “So when I’m tempted to try to be everything (in the material realm) to my own daughter, I have to remember all the unexpected — and completely wonderful — blessings and relationships that came from my having to look elsewhere to fill these perceived lacks in my own parents.”
Seven Encouragements for Parents of Prodigals by John Piper, Desiring God. “…don’t ever look upon the hardness, the indifference, even the bitterness or the cynicism of a prodigal and think, ‘That can’t change. This is never going to change.’ Don’t think that way. It can. He was dead and he lives’.”
Podcast: How to Talk with Your Kids about Sexuality, Screen Time, and Hostility at School (Andrew and Christian Walker), Crossway. This is available both as a podcast and a transcript to read. “… we, as parents, have to be the ones that are having very intentional, ahead-of-the-game discussions with our kids.”
Why Foster Care Is Worth the Costs by Jamie C. Finn. “Sometimes foster care feels like the warm embrace of a child, and sometimes it feels like offering my body as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). It is hard, but it is worth it.”
Teen Culture
How One Family Navigated Smartphones and Social Media in the Teen Years by Jordan Woodie, Digital Liturgies. “External safe-guards are only one part of the equation. They have no ability to change the heart.”
Why Schools Are Racing to Ban Student Phones by Natasha Singer, Yahoo News. “Studies have shown that mobile phones, text messages and even “nomophobia” — the fear of not having access to one’s phone — can distract students and impair learning. States hope that cracking down on phone use in the classroom will reduce learning distractions as well as tech misuse by students.”
What Happened to FOMO? by Freya India. “Social media doesn’t make Gen Z afraid to miss out; it makes us want to miss out. We want to avoid the risk, the rejection, the awkwardness, the effort and energy that the real world demands. Our major problem isn’t fear of missing out. It’s fear of taking part.”
Why are religious teens happier than their secular peers? By Zach Rausch, Boston Globe. “This can help us understand — beyond differences in parenting — why most secular teens across the political spectrum raced into the virtual world more quickly and stayed online longer than their religious conservative peers: They were searching for a community many felt was missing from their lives. Religious conservative teens, on the other hand, were more likely to be rooted in their real-world communities and less likely to move their lives so deeply into the virtual world, and thus less likely to have been harmed by a phone-based childhood.”
What Ever Happened to Dating? The Rise of ‘Just Talking’ Relationships by D. Scott Sibley, ifstudies.com. “What we need to be promoting with young people is how they can improve their relationship decision-making skills. We can help emerging adults to carefully consider how their behavior and decisions in relationships can have lasting consequences.”
On Rooted
Three Ways We Can Rest as Parents Who Are Justified by Connie Nelson
Easy Toke or Easy Yoke?: How Parents Can Train Teenagers to Think Ethically and Scripturally About Marijuana Usage by Davis Lacey
The Impact of a Father’s Christ-like Example by Steve Eatmon
Sour Grapes Are Not a Fruit of the Spirit by Kristin Elizabeth Couch
