Jim Daly

Experiencing the Best Marriage for You and Your Spouse

According to some reports, Americans spent $72 billion on wedding ceremonies last year. That puts the average cost in the neighborhood of $30,000 per ceremony.

By contrast, most married couples will never invest a fraction of that amount into the marriage itself.

A successful marriage isn’t the by-product of an extravagant ceremony or an expensive honeymoon. If that were the case, celebrities would routinely set the standard for strong, healthy marriages.

A happy, fulfilling marriage isn’t about the big day, it’s about the every day.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, marriage, relationships, wife

Discovering What It Means to Be a Man

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first man to successfully fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. The flight took him thirty-three hours, thirty minutes and thirty seconds.

Lindbergh didn’t sleep for nearly 55 hours. His flight from New York to Paris required him to dodge storm clouds at 10,000 feet and skim over wave tops as low as 10 feet. He continually had to alter his altitude to keep ice from building on The Spirit of St.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith

Reverend H.B. London, Jr., Pastor to Pastors, Has Died at 81

It is with a heavy heart that I write to let you know that our friend and longtime Focus colleague, the Reverend H.B. London Jr., passed away this morning after a long and courageous battle with cancer. He was 81. He died at his home in Palm Desert. His beloved wife, Beverley, was at his side, as were other members of the London family.

Our feelings are conflicted because, on the one hand, we rejoice that H.B.

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Evangelism It’s Easier Than You Think

Jesus said to believers, “You are the salt of the earth,” and “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13 and14, ESV).

What did Jesus mean? Lee Strobel – well-known as the former atheist who wrote the best-seller The Case for Christ – says that Jesus meant if you’re going to follow Him, make people thirst for God. Shine His message of hope, grace, love, redemption, and eternal life into areas of darkness and despair.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, evangelism, faith

Finding Hope and Healing After Losing a Child

There aren’t many things more devastating than losing a child.

Pam Vredevelt and her husband have endured the incredible pain and grief of losing two children.

After nine years of marriage, Pam became pregnant for the first time. The baby was developing right on schedule, but at a routine check-up, Pam’s doctor said, “I’m not seeing any heartbeat. I think the baby is dead.”

They had three more children after that. Their youngest, Nathan, was born with Down Syndrome.

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The Death of Civility

Earlier this week former First Lady and Democrat candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, made an astonishing statement. In fact, I believe that it succinctly sums up the dangerous and dysfunctional state of today’s American political affairs.

“You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about,” Mrs. Clinton told a reporter.

One day later, the former attorney general, Eric Holder, echoed Mrs. Clinton’s endorsement of incivility and potentially even mob violence by suggesting it was time for Democrats to act “tough.” Playing off of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s famous declaration during the 2016 presidential campaign, Holder said bluntly, “When they go low, we kick ‘em.”

This past summer, Democrat Representative Maxine Waters, one of the most liberal members of Congress, had urged supporters to physically harass Republican officials with whom they disagree.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: events, news

God’s Amazing, Unconditional Love

No one is beyond God’s reach.

Not even Kelly Stigliano. By age 13, she was sexually promiscuous and involved in divination, witchcraft, and the occult. She and her friends regularly smoke, drank, took drugs, held séances, and vandalized the neighborhood. By age 18, she was pregnant and suicidal.

Kelly married the father of her children and within two weeks she was caught in a cycle of abuse. At its worst, she begged her husband to kill her, so the abuse would end.

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650K Students Set an Example for the Nation—One of Hope, not Division

While the national media focused on D.C.-based controversies and character smears last week, at least 650,000 students were busy setting a different kind of example in their schools.

Courageous youth—kindergarten through college age— celebrated Bring Your Bible to School Day, an annual, religious-freedom event for students sponsored by Focus on the Family on Thursday, Oct. 4.

They shared their faith by highlighting its source—the Bible, sharing God’s Word with classmates throughout the day and talking about their experience on social media using the hashtag #BringYourBible.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: events, faith, kids, religious liberty

Tackling Midlife Transitions in Marriage

When you first got married, did you assume your relationship with your spouse would remain pretty much the same from year to year? Many couples do. That’s probably why so many wind up shocked and utterly confused when life around them changes … and their marriage along with it.

According to our guests on today’s program, relationship experts Bill and Pam Farrel, the key is to recognize that changes are coming – probably sooner than we think – and to prepare for them.

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Raising Daughters in God’s Wisdom

Being a parent takes wisdom, courage, and heart. And being the parent of a girl often requires an extra measure of love and tenderness.

Our next edition of the Focus on the Family Broadcast will encourage you to trust God with your daughter and equip you to help nurture her relationship with God, with her family, and with the world around her.

We’re airing a special conversation we recorded a few months ago with Jonathan and Wynter Pitts, parents of four girls.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, family, kids, parenting