Family and Home Archives

Lee Strobel on What to Do When Your Marriage is Spiritually Mismatched

As author and speaker Lee Strobel tells it, someone once came between him and his wife, Leslie, that almost destroyed their marriage. It wasn’t a co-worker or an old boyfriend.

It was Jesus Christ.

Leslie had become a Christian. Lee remained a staunch atheist.

Their worldviews were diametrically opposed to one another. The friction that created is why God gave us the sort of wisdom found in 2 Corinthians 6:14, which says, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.”

Yokes were heavy wooden implements that were fitted over the necks of two animals, so they could pull a plow together.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, marriage April 6, 2017 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Four Messages Kids Need to Hear from Their Parents

Does this visual remind you of your parenting style?

You probably recognize that formula from a math class somewhere in your past. It guarantees that every time you add A and B together, you get C. So 2 + 2 always equals 4, and 1 + 5 always gives you 6. Every time. It’s simple. It’s reliable. It’s predictable.

That certainty is why formulas are the go-to parenting method for so many moms and dads.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, discipline, parenting April 4, 2017 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Women Who Helped Save Easter

The miraculous, hope-filled story of Easter might have been closer to a Shakespearean tragedy if God had left it up to the men.

Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and hanged himself. Peter denied Jesus three times. Thomas doubted the Resurrection. And all of the disciples hid fearfully behind locked doors for three days. And when they were told that Jesus had risen, the message “seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe it” (Luke 24:11, ESV).

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith April 3, 2017 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How to Answer Your Millennial Child’s Doubts About God

Parenting can be messy.

From your children’s earliest days, you set boundaries, you discipline, you pour your life into your kids and trust that they’ll be drawn to your Christian faith and embrace it as their own. But one night, years later, your head hits the pillow, and you stare up at the ceiling through the darkness, distraught and wondering, “Where did we go wrong? We raised our kids in church. We prayed with them. We read the Bible to them.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, parenting March 31, 2017 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

C.S. Lewis Through the Eyes of His Stepson

“You may ask, ‘Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why isn’t he landing en force, invading it?’ Well, Christians think He’s going to land in force. We don’t know when, but we can guess why. He’s delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Profound truth like that is why C.S.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith March 30, 2017 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What Does Love Really Mean in Marriage?

There’s probably no more important word to define marriage than this one: love. But what is love, really? Is it simply an emotion we feel, or is it something deeper?

In some ways, you can’t fault most of us in the English-speaking world for being confused. The word love has itself become something of a generic term in American culture. The richness of its meaning has been lost.

Ancient Greek had four different words for love, each of them conveying a very particular nuance.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage March 28, 2017 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Most Important Event of a Millennium

Life Magazine once published a list of the “Most Important Events of the Millennium.” Among the top ten were the discovery of germ theory, the Holocaust, and the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Number one on that list was the Gutenberg Bible printed in the 1450s and the first book to be mass produced. According to Life Magazine, no other event in the past 1,000 years has changed the world as dramatically as the Bible becoming available to the common person.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, religious liberty March 24, 2017 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Hope for Marriages on the Brink of Divorce

I want to tell you a story that recently made a big impression on me.

A few weeks ago, Rick and Linda (not their real names) checked into our Hope Restored Marriage Intensive Experience at the Focus on the Family Retreat Center in Branson, Missouri.

The counselors at Hope Restored specialize in bringing severely broken marriages back from the brink of divorce.

Rick and Linda’s union was in deep trouble, riddled and rocked by infidelity, among other things.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage March 23, 2017 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How Raising a Child with Down Syndrome Changed One Dad

Trevor Hendershot is quite a young man. I think you’d like meeting him.

Cheerleaders in his high school once made banners to cheer him on, and he was so popular he was voted homecoming king. He was a little quirky, too. He had a habit of loudly singing Christian songs in the hallway before, during, and after school. He gave everyone he talked to a high-five, a hug, or a fist bump.

He’s now in his mid-20’s and works for the Los Angeles Angels, a Major League Baseball franchise.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, pop culture, pro-life March 21, 2017 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Improbable Adoption Story of Steve Jobs

Today’s broadcast, “Changing the World Through Adoption,” features a conversation with my friend, Focus colleague and co-writer, Paul Batura. The discussion is based on his latest book, Chosen for Greatness: How Adoption Changes the World.

Paul serves as our vice-president of communications. He’s currently in his 20th year at the ministry.

Although Paul often works behind the scenes, you might remember him from a Focus program several years ago where he discussed his popular book, “Good Day!

Topics: Family and Home Tags: adoption, broadcast, pop culture March 20, 2017 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura