Rooted’s Parent Top Ten of August 2025

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

What Your Kids Need More than a Salvation Prayer By Champ Thornton (TGC)

“Yes, it’s important for your children to call on the Lord. But it’s not important that you know the exact start date. You’re not teaching them how to get saved; you’re teaching them how to repent and believe.”

5 Myths About Parenting by Adam Griffin (Crossway)

“We imagine that the more control we have over our children and their circumstances, the better off they will be. This, of course, leads to anxiety and worry because every single day we have to face the fact that we are not actually in control.”

Redeeming the Time This New School Year by Kristen Hatton (CDM Women’s Ministry)

“Certainly, there is no formula for ensuring a life of faith for our kids and the relationships we desire to cultivate. It is by the grace of God, and yet as parents we are called to diligently shepherd their hearts (Deut. 6:7). But it starts with us—with our hearts. Scripture tells us, ‘For where our treasure is there our heart will be also’ (Matt. 6:21).”

To Take Risks or Raise Children? By Moriah Reeves Lovett (Desiring God)

“As parents, we have the responsibility to raise our children to know God (Deuteronomy 6:4–9), and we cannot offer them an eternally healthier, safer, or happier home than one that fears the Lord Jesus and submits to his will (Ephesians 6:4).”

Teen Culture

What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones By Lenore Skenazy, Zach Rausch, and Jonathan Haidt (After Babel)

“Children want to meet up in person, no screens or supervision. But because so many parents restrict their ability to socialize in the real world on their own, kids resort to the one thing that allows them to hang out with no adults hovering: their phones.”

Finding Security in an Insecure World By Sam Bush (Mockingbird)

“…the freedom of the gospel is the only thing that will actually help us be less afraid. It is the perfect love that casts out fear. After all, in an insecure world, the only thing that is truly secure is our salvation.”

This Is the News From TikTok by Amog Dimri (The Atlantic)

“Parnas’s 24/7 information blitz may be jarring for those whose media-consumption habits are not already calibrated for TikTok. There’s no ‘Good evening’ or ‘Welcome.’ But he’s reaching an audience who other media don’t: Many of his viewers, he thinks, are ‘young people who don’t watch the news and never have and never will.’ He added, ‘They just don’t have the attention span to.’”

To Share With Your Teenager

I’m Scared of Being Stupid By Grace Leuenberger (Mockingbird)

“A few chapters into The Big Relief, Dave shares a story about being rejected in high school by his peers when he was not chosen for the position of captain on the water polo team he’d been a part of. The team could vote to select two team captains, and given that only two boys were eligible (Zahl and a peer), it looked like a lock. But then the votes were tallied, and only one captain was chosen, not two.”

Elizabeth Bruenig’s Advice for Young Christian Writers By Christopher Kuo (Inkwell / Christianity Today)

“But I think the important thing is if you can go to work every day and do something that glorifies God, in some small way, even if it’s just having an interaction with a source where you’re empathetic and kind, or putting some stuff down on paper that really thinks through Christian virtues and Christian ideas like mercy and forgiveness. I think that’s all you really need.”

The Mercy of Gnats (and Other Outdoor Discomforts) By Scott Steltzer (TGC)

“The heavens were declaring the glory of God, but we needed the grace of gnats to reorient our desires. Our experience of enjoyment under God’s skies wasn’t perfect. And that was a good thing. We needed the sanctifying discomfort of the outdoors (bugs, in our case) to provoke biblical meditation and conversation that produced praise and enjoyment of God himself.”