Daly Focus Blog
In my role as president of Focus on the Family, I have the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people – from heads of state to ordinary people who’ve achieved extraordinary things.
Over the years, one thing has been affirmed again and again in my mind – people are what life is all about.
Dr. John Maxwell puts it this way: “God is in the people business, so we should be in the people business.”
Here at Focus, we take that directive seriously.
Some time ago I blogged about the “ideal” family size – does it matter how many children a couple has? In it, I took a look how many kids Americans think are ideal and why fertility rates are declining.
A recent article from The Washington Post brought that post to mind because it examines why some couples decide to have larger families.
According to Pew Research Center, 15 percent of all U.S. adults have had four or more children – and, as it might be expected, faith seems to play a role in the size of some families.
When I think of today’s and tomorrow’s radio guest, Sarah Kovac, I’m reminded of a story I once heard about two people strolling along the beach.
One was blind, the other was not.
At the top of a large sand dune, the blind man stopped and breathed in the salt air. “Isn’t this absolutely beautiful?”
“How can you appreciate any of this?” the sighted man asked.
The blind man smiled. “Can’t you feel the warmth of the sun or the sand between your toes?
Intimacy and sex are not the same thing.
That comes as a surprise to a lot of newlyweds. Most younger couples enter marriage thinking sex will be the easy part of their relationship … and feel caught off guard when it becomes one of the most complex. They don’t know going in that struggles related to sex are one of the top reasons for marital conflict.
That’s because newlyweds tend to assume they both want the same thing out of their sexual relationship.
When was the last time you shared your faith with someone?
I ask, not to shame those of us who haven’t talked to anyone about Christ in quite a while, but to draw us back to the journey.
We hesitate to talk to people about the Lord for any number of reasons. Maybe certain aspects of witnessing don’t fit our personality temperament. Or we don’t know what to say. Or we don’t feel we’re a good enough person to adequately represent Christianity.
In 1995, employees at the five-story Sampoong department store in Seoul, South Korea, noticed cracks developing on the top floor around one of the support columns. Despite warnings from civil engineers, the store’s owner refused to close the building for repairs.
It was a minor problem, he insisted.
In reality, the crack was merely a symptom of a much larger structural failure. That became evident on June 29 when the entire building collapsed, killing over 500 people and wounding nearly 1,000 more.
You’ve probably heard it many times before: financial management in the home is primarily about effective budgeting and wisely using the resources you already have.
But we hear from a lot of families who tell us they don’t have a budgeting problem, they have an income problem. They aren’t living extravagantly or beyond their means, but they’re still barely getting by and have nothing extra left over to bless others.
Recent survey data shows that almost 60 percent of families with children under the age of 18 in the home have parents who both work outside the home.
I’ve met a lot of couples who believe the formula for marital happiness is rooted in things like chemistry, fate, or a one-in-a-million shot that you’ll discover your soul mate.
Here’s one that’s mostly overlooked: choice.
That’s right. In the same way that personal happiness is a choice, so, too, is happiness in marriage. It may not always be an easy choice or an obvious choice, but it is something we can choose regardless of whatever obstacles may be working against us.
Men, we’re at war.
I don’t think most guys think of their role as a husband or father in those terms very often. That could be why so many guys succumb to the dangers of pornography and adulterous affairs. The enemy of our soul is ruthlessly plotting the destruction of us and our families … and a lot of us seem oblivious to it.
That’s why author and speaker Dr. Steve Farrar compares a man’s role in his home to point men in military conflict.
Sometimes I can’t help but smile when people tell me they’re just not sure how the Lord wants them to serve. “Lord, what do you want me to do with my life?” they’ll repeatedly pray.
I grin because, regardless of whatever unique and specific calling God may place on each of us, He’s already communicated many things that He expects from all of us. One is found in Scripture nearly 50 times: to care for the widow and the orphan (for example, James 1:27).
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.
