Family and Home Archives

Dad Matters Flies the Frantic Skies

Focus on the Family’s blog for fathers, Dad Matters, has a great mix of content written by some of the dads on our staff. Some of the posts, like the one on staying involved during the school year, are full of practical insight. Others, like the post on presuming the best, offer life wisdom with real-life examples.

Then there’s Patrick, who specializes in writing humorous pieces inspired by his daily adventures in fatherhood. His latest post, “Flying the Frantic Skies,” is sure to make you laugh:

Notice anything about those airline ads on TV?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: humor August 8, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How God Used a Young Man with Special Needs to Communicate on His Behalf

A few weeks ago I shared a moving video about a young couple and their newborn child that inspired many of you to tell me your own stories of love, loss and the dignity of every human life. Today I want to tell you how that video came to be – and to introduce you to the two very special men, a real-life father and son, who starred in the short feature “A Letter from Dad.”

Jim Mhoon serves as the vice president of content development here at Focus.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting August 7, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

VIDEO: The Story of the Million Dollar Birth

Would you miss the birth of your child for the largest paycheck of your life?

American pro-golfer Hunter Mahan, 31, was leading the Canadian Open, a tournament with a prize of $1 million – and then he got a call. It turns out his pregnant wife, who wasn’t due to deliver their first baby for another three weeks, had suddenly gone into labor.

What did he do?

What would you do?

Immediately after receiving the call, Mahan packed his bags and withdrew from the tournament.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage, parenting August 2, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How Can Parents Help Their Children After Divorce?

Earlier this week we aired a broadcast dealing with a difficult and sensitive issue: how can a man and woman who are divorced co-parent their children successfully?

It can be a challenging issue to navigate. We know God’s heart is for marriage and divorce is outside His intent. That’s why we encourage couples in crisis to do everything they can to work out differences through prayer, counseling and community support.

However, the reality remains that sometimes, divorce happens.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: divorce, kids, parenting August 1, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How Should Parents Define Happiness?

Scientists love to study how happy parents are (or aren’t). Year after year, news outlets report on the topic, touting studies that they say either find how unhappy parents are, or how much satisfaction and “positive emotion” children bring to their parents’ lives.

Here are some samples of the findings on this topic – as you’ll see, there’s a wide array of results.

A 2007 Pew report found children are still vital to adult happiness.
Fox News describe how “parents report significantly higher levels of depression than non-parents”
Research in the journal Psychological Science found that overall, “parents (and especially fathers) report relatively higher levels of happiness, positive emotion, and meaning in life than do non-parents.”
The Wall Street Journal reports “every additional child makes parents 1.3 percentage points less likely to be ‘very happy’”

Andrew Hess is one of our staff researchers, and he recently attempted to make sense of these findings.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, marriage, parenting July 31, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Thoughts on Pastor Rick Warren’s Return to the Pulpit

By now you’ve heard that pastor and bestselling author Rick Warren returned to the pulpit this past Sunday for the first time since his son’s suicide in April.

Matthew Warren, 27, struggled with mental illness since childhood. According to the Warrens, Matthew received the best medical care and counseling available. He had good days and very bad ones, but it was unpredictable and naturally very difficult. In the midst of this decades-long ordeal, the Warrens led and built up a church congregation of over ten thousand people.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting, pastors July 30, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How Can Hospitality Help Share the Gospel?

Sometimes it’s the littlest things we do that speak the loudest.

Take my colleague, Glenn Stanton. Glenn heads up our family formation studies. He’s the quintessential researcher, citing studies on marriage and family, speaking at universities, and engaging with experts across the political and ideological spectrum.

A few months ago, Glenn invited Jonathan Rauch, a well-known advocate of gay marriage, to speak to the staff at Focus on the Family. This was a good time for people on two different sides of an important issue to meet, share their views, respectfully challenge each other’s assertions, and walk away better informed about the complexities that surround this issue.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, friendship July 29, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

After Your Royal Baby Comes Home

It’s difficult to turn on the TV or visit online news sites without getting an update about the “royal baby” or seeing footage of the beaming parents introducing their son to the world. Joy and optimism are written across their faces. Like any new parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will undoubtedly spend many long moments gazing at their son and marveling at every perfect detail. Jean and I have so many fond memories of studying the perfect faces of Trent and Troy when they were first born.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting July 25, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Three Things to Remember Before Giving Advice to Your Spouse

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 July 24, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Why You Can’t Teach Just Abstinence

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 July 23, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura