Jim Daly - Daly Focus Blog

Helping Our Kids Manage Technology Well

It’s ironic, but true. In an age when technology connects us more than ever, teenagers are lonelier and more disconnected than any previous generation.

In the five years prior to the pandemic, the number of high school seniors who said they felt lonely dramatically increased – from 26 percent to almost 40 percent. In the past year, that percentage has increased to well over 50 percent.

Even taking Covid restrictions into account, today’s kids don’t engage face to face as much as past generations did.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: children, technology

No, Secretary of State Antony Blinken – Abortion is Not a Human Right

I sometimes wonder if government officials who champion abortion are blinded to the truth – or just knowingly embrace an indefensible position for the sake of ideological partisanship.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken comes to mind. He recently declared, “Standing up for human rights everywhere is in America’s interests.”

I would agree – it’s never right to embrace a wrong and defending the dignity of each person is a noble ideal. The United States may not be the world’s police force, but America has historically stood up for those in need, something we can all be proud of.

Yet during the same speech, Mr.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: abortion, pro-life

Does Living Together Help or Hurt?

In 2021, it’s more common for young adults to live with a boyfriend or a girlfriend than to be married.

One of the main reasons for this (for non-believers and believers alike) is the desire to be certain that the relationship is rooted in love. After all, you don’t buy a car without first test driving it. Why wouldn’t you take a relationship for a spin before making a lifetime commitment?

Perhaps the best reason to avoid cohabitation is that the data suggests that doing so significantly increases the possibility that a relationship will end badly.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: dating, marriage

Fighting for Joy as a Special Needs Parent

What do you do when you’ve prayed for a miracle … and the miracle never comes?

Jason Hague faced that situation after his son Jack was born. Like any father, Jason had dreams for his relationship with his son – the games they’d play together, the conversations they’d have.

Around age two, Jack started to regress developmentally. He struggled to walk. He lost his vocabulary and his ability to communicate. Jack was soon diagnosed with autism, and everything in Jason’s family changed.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: parenting

Loving Your Spouse in the Midst of Parenthood

Do you remember when you were first married – how you and your spouse enjoyed endless conversation, had fun together every weekend, and always seemed to have time for one another?

Do you remember how all of that changed in the years after you became parents – how every moment seemed busy with sports practice, dentist appointments, and school programs?

Once a couple has children, it’s easy for the marriage to get pushed down the priority list.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: marriage, parenting

A Bracelet That Can Change Someone’s Life

Bracelets as a form of fashion go back thousands of years, whether as jewelry made of gold, silver or even wood.

In recent years, though, bracelets have been used to help communicate a message or champion a particular cause.

My friend, Randy Hatcher, co-founder of Explore Your Faith, recently alerted me to a neat bracelet his organization is distributing. Here is how they describe it:

The bracelet is intended to be a relational, live, Gospel conversation starter.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith

Ditching the Cranky Monster Mom

There’s an old saying: “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

In most homes, Mom sets the tone. She’s the temperature gauge. If she’s in a great mood, everything else will run smooth.

Many women enter motherhood envisioning themselves as patient, kind, loving, soft, and gentle. And when they actually have a child, they’re confronted with the reality that children have a will of their own from infancy.

Children have an incredible way of pushing a mom’s buttons and triggering what author Becky Kopitzke calls the “momster.” Motherhood will find a way to squeeze out the most sinful parts of a woman, even one who strives to be under control and in tune with God.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: parenting

Improving Your Marriage as a Blended Family Couple

If you made a list of all the bad things that you never thought would happen, what would you write down?

For some, picking up the broken pieces of your life and starting over again with a blended family might be at the top of that list.

This new chapter may have come about through death or divorce or some other circumstance, but the challenge is the same: how to overcome the difficulties common to blended families and give this new part of your life its best chance to thrive.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: family, marriage

Using Your Unique Personality to Share Your Faith

What do you feel when you read this Scripture? “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’” (Matthew 9:37-38).

What about this one? “And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation’” (Mark 16:15).

Do verses like these about evangelism excite you? Or do they strike fear into your heart?

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith

GUEST POST: The Power of Easter

By Pat Fitzpatrick

As a young teacher in Atlanta, I developed a mentoring friendship with a colleague who taught Old and New Testament survey. George was a master of the English language like none other I have ever met, which was made even more impressive by the fact that English was the sixth or seventh language that he had mastered in his forty-five years on earth.

I often reflect on a conversation he and I had in the school’s dining hall in the late 1980’s.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: easter