Daly Focus Blog
A few times a year, our radio program highlights what for many can be a very sensitive topic: sexual intimacy within marriage.
I agree that it’s a conversation that should be handled with respect and a certain measure of discreteness, but it needs to take place.
Confusion about sex and sexuality is rampant in our culture, and the negative influence on the Christian community is pervasive. God’s design for sexual intimacy is too important an issue for the Church to politely ignore.
It’s really true: opposites do attract.
If you’re married, then you’ve likely experienced it in countless ways. Your spouse sees the world through entirely different eyes. You fall asleep to noise, but your spouse needs quiet. You’re a night owl, but your spouse enjoys mornings. For the most part, with a little communication, these differences can be navigated.
But sometimes it’s differences in communication itself that are the problem.
That dilemma is captured imaginatively in the title of a book written by today’s guests, Bill and Pam Farrel: “Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti.”
It’s a simple word picture to illustrate the inherent differences between men and women.
It’s the type of story that makes parents shudder:
Students exchanging nude photos on their phones.
Members of the Cañon City High School football team here in Colorado allegedly exchanged and collected hundreds of nude photographs of more than 100 students. Some of the students photographed were in middle school. And it seems all of this was part of a competition where points were assigned per picture.
As a colleague remarked, if this type of scandal is occurring in a small town like Cañon City, you know it’s happening all over America.
Is it too early to start thinking about Christmas?
Well, it’s not if you hope to get yourself organized, so you can have a smooth December and enjoy a stress-free Christmas season.
A lot of you can relate. Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, a time when we reflect on our Savior who came as a baby in a manger and soon took upon Himself the sins of the world.
Instead, we get caught up in all the “stuff” of Christmas: the lights, the decorations, the shopping.
Theodore Roosevelt, always quick with a succinct and witty quip, said it well.
“Comparison,” he once observed, “is the thief of joy.”
And so it is.
Kay Wyma, our broadcast guest today, shares this illustration for how easily – and early – comparing ourselves to others begins.
She took her kids and a few of their friends to a day of fun at a local water park. On the very first ride, a young boy in their group was told he wasn’t tall enough to join everyone else.
We’re inspired by love stories because of their happy endings. But, more often than not, before the “happily ever after,” fairy tale couples usually have to travel a lot of hard road.
That was certainly the case with Irene and Domingo Garcia. In fact, the beginning of their story was characterized by so much brokenness and conflict it was unlikely they could have ever had a happy ending.
Irene was 13 when she first met Domingo, a 16-year-old, street-wise tough guy who was already an alcoholic.
If a couple in your church was headed for divorce, would anyone be able to see it coming before it was too late?
Chances are less likely than you might think, according to a new study that Focus on the Family sponsored through LifeWay Research. The study found that in the three months leading up to divorce, churchgoing couples in troubled marriages show similar levels of involvement as those in healthy marriages in four areas:
Attend church once a week or more
Involvement in a small group
Serve in community ministries
Hold positions of responsibility at church
What’s even more astounding is that nearly one-third of churchgoers who divorced never told anyone in their congregation that they were experiencing marital problems.
Pinocchio had a big nose.
Of course, that’s because it grew when he told a lie.
But the old tale about a wooden puppet who wanted to become a real boy conveys a message much deeper than just the perils of lying.
It’s a cautionary tale about selfishness.
Pinocchio lied to feed his selfish nature, and selfishness only offers temporary happiness. In the end, it makes you less than what God created you to be.
The story begins with Gepetto, Pinocchio’s father, telling him the wise way to live.
If you made a list of all the things in your life you never thought would happen, situations you never could never have imagined yourself being in, what would you write down?
For some of you, 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 of life 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 to give this new part of your life its best chance to thrive.
Kids sure come up with a lot of fun questions – like the little boy who asked his mom, “Was everything in black and white in the olden days?” Or the little girl who really wanted to know where the light goes when you turn off the switch.
But sometimes the questions children ask are tough and quite serious, like “Why does God allow bad things to happen?”, “Why do people get sick and die?”, or “Why are there things like war?”
Those kinds of inquiries aren’t easy to answer, and they usually come out of left field when parents least expect them.
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.
