A Comprehensive Resource Guide to Empower Christian Parents
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- Updated Jun 20, 2024
As parents who are striving to grow children that love the Lord with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength we need a village to rely on. This village should include people in your community that you can call on for childcare, educational support, wisdom, encouragement, and more. Our village can now stretch even farther with the myriad of resources available to us online and in print.
Media and entertainment come in so many forms these days. It’s vital that we ensure that our kids are not being exposed to content that distracts or pollutes their growing minds. Consuming media from trusted resources is a great way to protect your family from things that are full of evil entering our homes. Here are some places to find support, educate ourselves, and places we can find clean entertainment as we navigate the many seasons parenthood brings our way.
1. Christian Artists Your Kids Will Love
Slugs and Bugs is our very favorite Christian music group for our young ones. Our whole family enjoys their silly songs and their scriptures made into song. They have expanded to offer books and videos in addition to their delightful music that shares gospel truth in a fun way with your kids.
Ellie Holcomb is a talented artist that has produced several kid friendly albums that are paired with books. These include Sing: Creation Songs with the book Who Sang the First Song?. and in 2020 Sing: Remembering Songs with the book Don’t Forget to Remember.
Kings Things has wonderful songs that your kids can sing and learn to. The put scripture to song, making it much easier to memorize together as a family.
Hillsong Kids music is fun, upbeat, and full of biblical truths our kids can enjoy singing about at home. They also offer videos, books, blogs, and even an app your family can draw on.
2. Christian Family Friendly and Parenting Podcasts
Christian Parent, Crazy World with Catherine Segars is dedicated to helping you be a godly parent in an ungodly world. Catherine is an expert in Christian Apologetics for parents, and every episode helps moms and dads understand what is going on in our current culture and how Christians can and should respond.
The Real Deal of Parenting is a podcast where hosts Abby Johnson and Regan Long talk all things pertaining to motherhood with authenticity, complete transparency and a healthy dose of humor. They present topics from a Conservative Christian perspective ranging from the everyday challenges of raising kids to high-profile issues no one else will touch and current events facing families.
Abide Kids Bedtime Stories produces peaceful background music & sounds to help children fall asleep fast.
Adventures in Odyssey Podcast gives you the chance to learn even more about the beloved Adventures in Odyssey cast!
The Biggest Story Podcast walks through the Bible making sure to point each story back to Jesus.
Lamplighter Kids Podcast mission is to give children a trusted source of entertainment that emphasizes virtue and character. Your kids can get swept away in a good story that lessons are honoring to God and others.
Indescribable Kids Podcast takes us to space and back using Creation to show us more of who God is.
The Christian Parenting Podcast is a great place for parents to go to find resources and learn from others. Episodes touch on topics that range from grief, anxiety, faith, loneliness, and more.
3. Family Friendly Devotionals
Parenting by Design was created by Chris and Michelle Groff with Lee Long, MA, LPC, to help parents understand the Biblical model for parenting their children. It is a faith-based parenting series that compares current parenting paradigms to the ageless parenting principles in the Bible.
Hands-On Faith for Families is a weekly devotional created by Focus on the Family that provides a theme and scripture for each week, as well as a “Play” section that provides you with ideas on how you can illustrate the biblical lesson to your children through play.
HomeWord, with Jim Burns is a devotional that strives to encourage parents and build families through practical, biblical advice, applications and questions, and suggestions for diving deeper into scripture.
Long Story Short: Ten-Minute Devotions to Draw Your Family to God helps parents to share the Bible in small manageable chunks with their kids. We are all busy but everyone can fit 10 minutes a day into their routine to help remind our kids that Jesus loves them and has a plan for them.
One Year of Dinner Table Devotions and Discussion Starters: A Daily Family Devotional with 365 Opportunities to Grow Closer to God as a Family is another easy way to gather the family in order to learn more about the Bible and what it teaches. This devotion promotes meaningful conversation that helps us discover together what God’s truth is and how to apply it to our lives.
The Family Bible Devotional engages the family with stories from the Bible and invites you to pray, learn, and grow together as a family with strong faith.
The Bible Recap Kids' Devotional: 365 Reflections and Activities for Children and Families follows along with the Bible Recap Podcast. The devotion is designed for kids ages 6 and up. It is full of fun activities such as word puzzles, coloring pages, and other fun activities.
4. Christian TV and Movies for the Whole Family
TV and media can be really tough for families. It’s hard to find engaging, well-done shows that the whole family can enjoy. Pretty much anything on the Angel Network is wonderful! Here are a few shows we’ve discovered and all of us in my home love:
The Wingfeather Saga we first read as a family and my kids fell in love with these fanciful books, then Angel Network began making the books into a show and we love it. I highly recommend the books and the show!
We have watched the Freelancers so many times! It’s hilarious and clean. The silly antics of this rag-tag group of friends never gets old.
Young David is another animated series created by the Angel Network that is very well done. Young David is heroic, lovable, and the episodes are short and engaging.
True Spirit is a great movie that tells the true story of a young girl with an ambitious dream to sail around the world alone before she turned 18. The movie is well done and available on Netflix to stream.
5. Christian Parenting Books
The Intentional Father by Jon Tyson is a book that my husband raves about. It has helped him create intentional rhythm for how to guide our boys into manhood. It’s full of practical ways to support our sons. It’s a must-read!
Parenting with Love and Logic by Foster Cline and Jim Fay is a resource that parents can draw on from preschool and beyond. Their psychology-based parenting method helps instill responsibility and proper boundaries for our kids. It’s practical and full of great advice!
The Connected Parent by, PhD and Lisa C. Qualls, is a book especially helpful if you have kiddos in your home who have experienced trauma or have joined your family through adoption. This book helps give you real ways to help ease the anxiety your kids may be experiencing as well as promote healthy attachment for your family.
Comfort: A 30-Day Devotional Exploring God's Heart of Love for Mommas by Amanda Idleman is a devotional made for mommas who are parenting at any age or stage. This devotion was born of a whisper from the Holy Spirit that interrupted a normal drive home and told me to write down what he had been teaching me over my first decade of motherhood. It walks through real questions about faith, fear, and how to trust God in the midst of this chaotic world.
Christ-Centered Parenting by Russell Moore and Phillip Bethancourt is an amazing study to do on your own or with a group of parents. It tackles big topics such as sexuality, screens, addiction, anxiety, and more in a Christ-centered way. The study offers truth, empathy, and creates space for thoughtful conversation between parents with tips for parenting kids from preschool age on up.
This is just a starting point for you on your journey to grow kids who love the Lord with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength and love their neighbor as themselves. This parenting job can be overwhelming, but you are not alone. You have the Holy Spirit to guide you as well as many wonderful resources from other men and women of faith that you can draw on when you need more tools in your parenting bag.
Calling All Parents - Listen Now! 8 Words Every Parent Must Say to Their Child
There are eight critically important words that, as parents, we need to say to our kids as often as necessary—and they are hard. They may be the hardest words to say in the English language. They are relationship-building words and words that model what true repentance looks like. If you don’t learn how to say these words, at some point, your relationship with your child will break. Listen to this episode of Christian Parent/Crazy World to learn what they are, and be sure to subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
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