Daly Focus Blog
A lifelong marriage goes through many seasons.
The romantic honeymoon phase kicks off the journey, but soon enough, the couple often enters into the hectic young-children-and-little-sleep stage. Before they know it, those toddlers are teens … and then the high schoolers go off to college.
Pretty soon, that once fresh-faced husband and wife are coming home to an empty nest.
With all of these changes and challenges how can we keep our marriages healthy and happy?
We’re back in football season, and as a former high school quarterback, I couldn’t be happier. I have great memories of playing the game.
That’s why I relate to Apollos Hester, a high school wide receiver from Texas, so well. His post-game interview was probably even more exciting than the 42-41 victory his team had just earned.
And to all of you going to football games tonight – I hope your team wins!
As you know, the term “rose-colored glasses” is used to describe someone who sees the world in an optimistic fashion. It provides a good word-picture because the lens we use to see the world certainly impacts how we perceive it.
In the same way, our worldview influences how we see culture and life around us.
In today’s broadcast, we’re featuring a conversation I recently had with John Stonestreet, who works as the executive director of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
MONEY magazine recently released its list of “Best Places to Live in America” for 2014, and Castle Rock, Colo., a town just north of Colorado Springs, was number four on the list.
How do they determine which cities make the top ten?
MONEY starts with 781 cities and whittles down the list by looking at factors such as median family income, racial diversity, quality of education, economic opportunity, and even the residents’ level of happiness.
That got me to thinking.
Sometimes you find good relationship advice in the strangest places – like an online review for a film.
Time magazine recently highlighted “112 Weddings,” a documentary by filmmaker and wedding videographer David Block. In it, he follows up on about a dozen of those couples whose weddings he has filmed over the years to see how those marriages fared.
The review includes Block’s best advice on marriage. His take?
“Pick wisely.” He also advises husbands and wives to stay flexible and accept imperfections.
It seems like, more and more, the use of spanking as a form of child discipline is being questioned by parents. Focus on the Family recently had an opportunity to address the issue in TIME Ideas. Dr. Jared Pingleton, the director for our counseling department, wrote the piece. –JD
Spanking Can Be an Appropriate Form of Child Discipline
NFL running back Adrian Peterson’s recent arrest for allegedly abusing his 4-year-old son has once again sparked the debate over whether spanking is an appropriate form of discipline.
It’s one of those lighthearted list-type articles that make for fun reading:
NPR’s recent “Global Parenting Habits That Haven’t Caught On In the U.S.” shows just how much culture impacts childrearing. I can only imagine that most American parents’ jaws will drop at the second item on the list – a claim that Vietnamese parents potty-train their babies by 9 months.
9 months?
Pretty hard to believe, yes? Apparently the secret lies in the Pavlov-like trick of whistling when the baby starts going to the bathroom.
Do certain memories from your past still haunt you after all these years?
Every day Focus hears from good people who have faced difficult, even tragic, circumstances. Many endure life with a sense of agony few of their family and friends are even aware of.
In some cases, these folks refuse to seek help because they don’t believe it’s possible to overcome problems from so long ago. “Why bother?” they think. “What’s done is done. We can’t change the past.”
Strictly speaking, that’s true, of course.
Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned roller coaster? Yet, as exciting as they are, even the most ardent thrill seekers wouldn’t choose to ride one every day for the rest of their lives.
Sadly, we hear from many husbands and wives who feel as if their marriage has become one long, scary, roller coaster ride. Things are up and down, unpredictable, unstable, and just not fun anymore. And many of these couples are looking for a way out.
I asked several of my colleagues here at Focus for their best dose of homespun parenting counsel. It should be a given that we’re to introduce our children to the Lord and disciple them throughout their childhood and beyond. I was mainly asking them for some very practical nuggets of wisdom.
Here is what they told me they regularly tell their children:
It’s never as good as you hear or as bad as you feel.
Learn to remember names.
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.
