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.) At the end, you’ll find Rooted resources compiled from the last month’s new offerings. We hope this resource is helpful!
Gospel-Centered
Learning how to love my Gen Z Children with the Gospel by Dwayne Cline, TGC Canada. “I believe the best way to connect with Gen Z is to convey both who our King is and what His Kingdom is like. They need to see the beauty of the gospel and long for it to be true. Then they see the emptiness of what they have embraced and turn to Christ.”
10 Important Personal Lessons I Learned From Adopting a Child with Special Needs by Vera Christian, SOLA Network. “I tell people that it was against my better judgment to say “yes” to the adoption of our special needs daughter, Anah. Unlike the many kind-hearted and compassionate people who adopt for godly reasons, I adopted to alleviate my guilt and fear. You can do the right things with completely sinful motives, and I say that to make sure you don’t give me more credit than I am due. But despite my shameful admission, I can also say that the past 10 years with Anah have put me on the fast track to learning some important lessons that I missed earlier on.”
A Parent’s Worst Nightmare by Joshua Chatman, TGC. “If you were to poll parents on their greatest fears for their children, the answers would vary greatly—being victims of abuse, adopting unbiblical ideologies, being exposed to inappropriate material, indulging in destructive behaviors, and so on. But as dreadful and disheartening as those fears are, for the Christian parent, the greatest nightmare is a child never knowing the Lord.”
How to Respond If Your Child Comes Out Today by Maria Keffler, TGC. “The deck has been stacked against parents by activists who declare that concerns or questions are evidence that parents don’t love their children or want them to be happy. This false dichotomy—“embrace the ideology or reject the child entirely”—cleaves children from their parents before a single word is uttered. An unfettered panic response will only pound that wedge in further.”
Say the Quiet Things, Out Loud by Kristen Couch, the-palest-ink.com. “We are people of dust, yet made in God’s image, and shouldn’t we run after of our children’s hearts, just as our gracious Heavenly Father pursues ours?”
Youth Culture
Teens Can Be Tough on Parents. Staying Close Can Make All the Difference by Alan Mozes, US News and World Report. “ The more time parents spent with their teenage kids, the more likely they were to have contact with them in their early 20s. Similarly, warmer parent-teen interactions were more likely to foster warm parent-young adult connections. The findings appeared to hold up regardless of gender, race, family income or young adult living arrangements.”
The Sometimes-Painful But Always-Beautiful Gift of Raising a Teen With Down Syndrome by Amy Julia Becker, IFStudies. “In and among all these areas of sometimes-painful and sometimes-beautiful (and sometimes both) growth, Penny is a teenage girl, one with Down syndrome, who needs her parents to love her and support her and resist the desire to smooth out all the rough patches of life for her.”
What Can Kids Draw from the Chess Cheating Controversy? by Emily Belz, Christianty Today. “According to coaches and Mister Rogers, parents should love competitive kids, appreciate their excellence, and help them through disappointment so they don’t feel such a weight of expectation that they start cutting corners.”
To Share With Your Teen
7 Commitments to Make Before Using Social Media by Paul David Tripp. Reading this article together would be an excellent way to start the social media conversation with a young teen, or refocus an older child who is in danger of getting over their head with it.
I’m a Gen Zer, and I Believe the Bible Is Inerrant by Ashley Kim, SOLA Network. “If Scripture was relevant at a single point in history, it must be relevant at all times. The Bible is either the Word of God or it isn’t. And if it’s the Word of God, it must be inerrant―wholly true and free of mistakes.”
On Rooted
What you Do Is Not Who You Are by Dawson Cooper
Peas, Christian Activities, and all the Little Saviors That Don’t Save by Katie Polski
The False Savior of Good Behavior by Anne Sanford
Parents Are the Primary Disciple-Makers of Their Children by Anna Meade Harris
Hope for the Parent of an Unbelieving Child by Luke Paiva
Everyday Jesus for Parents by Joey Turner
God’s Goodness Is Good Enough for Our Kids by Angela Tiland
A Story of Parenting by Faith: How God Is Teaching One Dad to Trust Him by Joey Turner
How Parents Can Help Teenagers Study Their Bibles by Anna Meade Harris
What the Bible Says About Parenting by Rooted
