Family and Home Archives

Reclaiming Hope and Safety in a Destructive Marriage

How do you know you’re in an emotionally abusive marriage?

You are regularly:

Dismissed.Deceived.Dominated.Degraded.Diminished.

A random careless comment from your spouse is one thing. But when you are regularly mistreated, it’s a pattern. A destructive pattern.

As a matter of course, you’re not free to be yourself. You’re not free to express your own opinion or your own ideas without being shot down, ridiculed, or labelled as ungodly, unspiritual, or stupid. You’re not encouraged to be the person that God has called you to be.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage October 21, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Hope and Help for Weary Moms

Mom, are you tired?

Research says that you are. Studies show that the average mom changes over 2,000 diapers a year, does almost 200 loads of laundry, and loses almost 900 hours of sleep! And many moms work outside of the home as well!

Motherhood can be exhausting. Moms give, give, and give some more. Especially when the boys were young, my wife Jean often felt like no one saw or appreciated everything she did each day.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, hope, mom, mother, parenting October 19, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Praying for Unsaved Loved Ones

Let me ask you this question: If Jesus said to you, “I will answer every single prayer that you pray this week,” how many people in your life would you pray for to receive Christ?

Are you praying for them now?

Have you grown weary of praying for someone – or given up entirely – because nothing seems to be happening within them?

What if, as we pray for others, God does something in us? Through prayer, God molds our character, grows our patience, and empowers us to persevere.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, love, prayer October 15, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Bringing Laughter to Your Marriage

Today, I’ve got a simple idea to help you build a great marriage. It’s fun, too.

Laugh together.

Studies show that couples who laugh are healthier, happier, and more connected. Even little giggles between you can create bonds that you’ll share forever.

Laughter is a powerful connecter. In fact, laughter is often more about connection than it is humor. Studies show that we laugh more when we’re with other people than when we’re alone.

Some of my greatest memories involve Jean and me laughing together in the car or around the dinner table.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, love, marriage October 13, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Developing a Love of Prayer in Your Kids

In our Welcome Center here at the Focus on the Family campus, children have the opportunity to leave their prayer requests with us.

One of my favorites is from a 9-year-old boy who wrote, “Please pray for my brother. He wets the bed. And pray for me. I share the bed with my brother.”

Some prayer requests are much more serious, like the 8-year-old boy who wanted us to ask God to help his dad stop drinking and be healthy again.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, prayer October 12, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Simple Steps to Improve Your Marriage

Could you use a simple tip to improve your marriage?

How about 100 simple tips?

Matt and Lisa Jacobson, our guests on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Simple Steps to Improve Your Marriage,” actually have them for you.

After 25 years of marriage, Matt and Lisa looked at each other one day and decided, “Let’s each write down one hundred things that we’ve done to create a loving marriage.” When they compared notes, they realized that the present is always the culmination of little decisions that stack up over time.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage October 9, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Setting a Godly Example for the Culture

Historically, Christianity has been at its purest and most powerful in times of crisis. It’s in the margins of society where God seeks and finds people through the power of His Gospel.

Throughout history, the Gospel has been countercultural for its revolutionary message about the human heart. The Gospel isn’t a moral handbook or a handy roadmap for successful living. It’s a pronouncement about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that gives us ultimate victory over suffering and death.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: culture, faith October 8, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Finding God’s Light in Dark Times

The Lord moves in mysterious ways.

Which is why author and humorist Patsy Clairmont doubted God was speaking to her when He asked her to share Genesis 1:3, “Let there be light,” with her friend who was sick with cancer.

Patsy knows how dark life can be. She has lived through some difficult seasons herself. In fact, for many years she suffered such crippling anxiety that she feared leaving her house, and some days she couldn’t even get out of bed.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith October 6, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Making Your Marriage a High Priority

Not much can exploit a couple’s differences like Hollywood. So, when Kirk and Chelsea Cameron married in 1991, they knew they were attempting to build a life together in a place notorious for tearing marriages down.

They spent the first several months on the lookout for outside dangers to their relationship. But a conflict one night in their kitchen taught them that the culture surrounding them wasn’t the most significant influence on whether or not their marriage would be successful.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage October 1, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Helping Your Teens Retain Their Faith

As a father of two young men, the topic of how young people and faith coalesce is close to my heart because Jean and I are living it right now. We have diligently tried to raise our sons to be men after God’s heart. Some days we feel like we’ve hit a home run. Other days, we fear we’re striking out.

Maybe you feel the same way. Christian parents are competing with a lot in the culture when it comes to believing in God and living for him.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, kids, parenting September 25, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura