Daly Focus Blog
Do you ever waste time with your spouse?
That may seem like an odd question. But your answer will get to the heart of what your relationship with your spouse is all about.
You see, some couples don’t do too well with “wasting” time with one another. Simply being together with no particular agenda and nothing to focus their attention on except their spouse is uncomfortable.
In other words, they have a hard time with intimacy.
Are you a fan of the predictably poignant but proudly and admittedly syrupy and sappy Hallmark Christmas movies?
The Hallmark Hall of Fame franchise, which dates back to 1951, is the longest running prime time series in television history. Although the specials have evolved over the years, the concept of using feel-good entertainment to market a company’s products has to go down as one of the most brilliant moves in the history of retail sales promotion.
When should parents say, “My child is old enough to be completely free as an adult”?
By the way, “Never!” is not a good answer.
It’s worth thinking through when your job is done as a parent. Your answers will guide you in how you approach raising your kids.
Children on their way to adulthood have always struggled against their parents. And parents have always wondered, “Have I done everything I could to prepare my child for adulthood?
Alexandra Kuykendall knew she had to do Christmas differently.
Her job required a significant amount of her time, and her children and husband wanted a good chunk of the rest. Add to that visitors who were staying in her home and the usual accoutrements of Christmas – food, gifts, decorations, etc. – and she was overwhelmed.
After the holidays, even a non-committal, “Fine,” felt like a lie when friends and co-workers asked her, “How was your Christmas?”
She encountered something all of us go through at one time or another at Christmas.
It’s easy to forget the origins of the holidays we celebrate. For a lot of people, Thanksgiving is about family, football, and pumpkin pie.
That’s all good stuff. But it’s also good to remind ourselves of the true origin of Thanksgiving and to remember how grateful we should be to live in a nation that has been immeasurably blessed by God.
While you’re fixing your Thanksgiving feast today, or heading over to Grandma’s in the car, tune into our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Remembering the Pilgrims’ Journey.”
Professor Jay Milbrandt, a professor at Bethel University in Minnesota, is with us to peel back the layers of history and get us back to what the first Thanksgiving was all about.
Despite the seemingly unprecedented animosity directed towards people of Christian faith these days, religious persecution is not a new concept.
The Pilgrims who first established the Plymouth Colony in 1620 had encountered more than their fair share of religious bias prior to leaving England. They came here seeking religious liberty—one of the very same principles that would later be enshrined in our Constitution.
I recently had the opportunity to interview an expert on the Pilgrims for the Focus on the Family Broadcast.
The holiday season can be one of the most joyful times of the year. But it can also be one of the most stressful.
Spending time with family during Thanksgiving and Christmas sounds enjoyable in July and August. But once November and December arrive, you realize how much needs to get done, and you remember what’s it like to be in a house filled with people who have different interests, different traditions, even differing political and spiritual viewpoints.
Remember Goliath? In 1 Samuel, he taunted the Israelites, saying, “Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us” (v.9).
Author Deborah Pegues encourages her readers to imagine their fear as a giant like Goliath. If you overcome it, if you conquer it, your fear will serve you.
Genesis says that we were created perfect in the Garden of Eden. Revelation 22 describes the end of the age when God will create a new heaven and new earth, and our perfection will be restored.
Therein lies the rub: Between Eden and eternity, life is filled with disappointment, and we don’t always know how to handle it well. We push disappointment aside. We ignore it. We numb it. We bury it. We doubt God’s love for us.
“For a good time, call HOME!”
That should be a bumper sticker. It’s actually pastor Ted Cunningham’s encouragement to men and women to invest in their marriage.
He says you get out of your relationship what you put into it. That means enjoying life and marriage is a decision – a choice you make – not merely an outcome or something you wait for. Compatibility is something you create by choosing to invest your time and resources into your relationship.
Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.
