Daly Focus Blog
The Wall Street Journal recently ran a rather provocative column on marriage and advice-giving, linking the practice to lower marital satisfaction rates. Here’s the crux of the findings:
In a series of six studies that followed 100 couples for the first seven years of marriage, researchers at the University of Iowa found that both husbands and wives feel lower marital satisfaction when they are given too much advice from a spouse, as opposed to too little.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage, relationships by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
Do you remember Elizabeth Smart? Her story certainly broke my heart. In 2002, she was kidnapped from her own bedroom in Utah and held captive for nine months. During that time, Smart, then 14, was repeatedly raped by her captor.
Smart was recently part of a panel at an event on human trafficking at Johns Hopkins University where she shared her story. When explaining why she didn’t try to escape, she said it went beyond fear, and shared this experience:
“I remember in school one time, I had a teacher who was talking about abstinence.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: parenting, sex by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
Here at Focus, we’ve long promoted the idea that married couples thrive when they take the time to go on a regular “date night.” Yes, that’s right – in the middle of our fast-paced lives and parenting craziness, husband and wives should put in the effort to plan a time together to talk and connect outside of the normal routine.
For most married couples, it’s not easy to go on dates regularly. For some, it’s hard to justify the expense.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage, relationships by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
Each year, thousands of pregnant couples throughout the U.S. find out through prenatal testing that the child they’re expecting has Down syndrome. For most of those parents, receiving this news is a seismic event that up-ends many of the hopes and dreams they’ve held for their child. In the confusion and fear that surrounds such a diagnosis many parents choose, sadly, to end the pregnancy.
Lauren Warner is a young mom and blogger with a personal take on Down syndrome.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, parenting by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
It’s a familiar formula for movie and TV plots: the hugely successful, workaholic husband and dad is a failure at home. His wife feels like he’s a stranger, and his kids resent him. The man’s life is crumbling around him, even while his career is in high gear.
The reason the plot is used again and again is because it sadly echoes reality in far too many homes across the country.
But what if I told you that the same principles and techniques that husband and father applies to his professional life would also help him excel at home?
Topics: Family and Home Tags: relationships by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
The heartwarming story taking the Internet by storm the past few days almost reads like a fast-paced movie script.
A young couple pregnant with a baby diagnosed with Down syndrome are planning to abort. A priest learns about the situation, and steps in. He tells the couple he’ll find a home for that baby if they choose to deliver – however, the woman is planning her abortion for the next day.
It’s a race against time, so the Rev.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
When I was an eight-year-old boy, I looked to Hank, the father figure in my life, for all the things the other kids my age seemed to enjoy with their dads. Sadly, Hank wasn’t willing to be engaged in my life. He adored my mom, but my siblings and I were simply excess baggage. While my mother was affectionate and nurturing, Hank’s love for us was missing in action. As a youngster longing for a strong, caring father figure in my life, it would have gone a long way toward forging a close bond between Hank and my siblings and me if he had:
1.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, kids, parenting, relationships by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
Do you know yourself?
Blaise Pascal once said, “There are two kinds of men, the righteous who believe themselves sinners: the rest, sinners, who believe themselves righteous.”
C.S. Lewis agreed. “When a man is getting better,” he once wrote, “he understands more and more clearly the evil that is left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he’s not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he’s all right.”
At the very core of Christianity is an understanding of our own inadequacy.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
We’ve just returned from a great week of camping in Yellowstone National Park. I need to plow into all the work that accumulated while we were away, but before doing so, I wanted to share one quick thought.
The late comedian George Carlin once said, “Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.”
I get it! Perhaps a soft bed and a warm shower are more your style.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
Have you ever noticed that when kids are young and growing fast, something from only four years back seems like an eternity ago? In that spirit, I’d like to share a great memory with you – “way back” from 2009. I hope it brings a smile to your face. Have a great weekend!
***
My dad never took me fishing—which explains why I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to the sport. I was never shown the ropes.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
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.Home
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