If we don’t want our kids to be among the two-thirds who drop out of church when they become young adults, we need to help them become comfortable wrestling through the difficult questions that Christians inevitably face in a fallen world. Here are four principles for parenting to build antifragile faith.

Answers to the questions: What if I don’t have the answer? How, practically, do I expose my kids to secular thought? Will encouraging my kids to ask questions also encourage them to doubt?

We want our kids to have a faith that is not merely firm, but strong enough to grow stronger when it faces challenges instead of crumbling. God has created our immune systems that way. Exposure to germs (in limited amounts) makes it stronger. The many biblical examples of people bringing their questions and doubts to God and receiving his mercy suggest he made our hearts that way, too.

A curated list of some helpful articles, podcasts, and books on this topic for those who want to explore it further.

Rather than protecting our kids’ faith from the world or conforming it to the world, we need to prepare it for the world.

Unlike some of the questions forced on our kids by recent cultural challenges, this is one we should hope they will ask, because Christian faith is built on the truth of the resurrection, so we have a great opportunity to build that foundation in their lives. We don’t want them to fall into the tendency in our culture to simply ignore the resurrection. Ultimately, the best evidence for the resurrection may be the way it transforms lives—both the first Christians and our own.

Answers to the questions: But rising from the dead is impossible. What are the most common alternative explanations for the facts of the resurrection, and how should I respond to them? Can you be a Christian but not believe in the resurrection?

You don’t have to watch sports for long to learn that completely unexpected, unprecedented, and apparently miraculous things do happen, though none are as unexpected, unprecedented, or miraculous as the resurrection. Whether we like the outcome of an amazing play or not, the important thing is whether it actually happened or not, just like the resurrection.

A curated list of some helpful articles, podcasts, and books on this topic for those who want to explore it further.

As Easter approaches, we think through how to answer perhaps the most important question our kids could ask.

Entertainment is not neutral. The threat it presents to our kids' hearts is deeper than exposure to sex, violence, and swear words. It attempts to shape their understanding of themselves and the world. To protect them, we need to do more than forbid certain shows and artists; we need to teach them to respond to the worldview it promotes with the gospel’s more beautiful story.

Jesus calls us to be the salt of the earth. It’s a great responsibility to be called to flavor the world around us, so Jesus warns us against losing our saltiness. What does that mean? How do we maintain the flavor of the gospel? And how might the shows we watch make that difficult? Let’s use an analogy that hits a bit closer to home: keeping our cereal crunchy.

Answers to the questions: Practically, how should I decide what to let my kids watch? I don’t have time to pre-watch and analyze the messages in everything my kids want to watch; are there any resources that can help? What about how much I let my kids watch? Can you help me settle “the great screen time debate” in my household?

A curated list of some helpful articles, podcasts, and books on this topic for those who want to explore it further.

The messages secular entertainment promotes to our kids are more powerful and pervasive than we may realize, but the gospel message is stronger still. How do we ensure the gospel is what shapes their hearts?

Despite the cultural denigration of dads and distrust of male authority (“the Patriarchy”), fathers play a vital role in children’s faith development, one that is reinforced by the importance of fatherhood in the Bible. Not only is fatherhood a metaphor God uses for himself, God’s loving, self-sacrificing authority should be the model for fathers.

Answers to the questions: What does this look like practically? How do I maintain authority while showing self-sacrificial love? What if I’m lovingly leading my kids, but they still won’t listen to me?

An example of how to explain to our kids the importance of listening to the right people, trusting God as the ultimate authority, and appreciating how their fathers model God’s love for them.

A curated list of some helpful articles, podcasts, and books on this topic for those who want to explore it further.

A widely recognized fatherhood crisis plagues our nation. Not only have too many fathers abandoned their children, too many have abandoned the loving authority to which God calls them.