Family and Home Archives

5 Ways to Strengthen Your Marriage

Terri Orbuch is a psychologist and research professor at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. She recently identified some of the top common regrets of divorced couples.

“Divorced individuals who step back and say, ‘This is what I’ve done wrong and this is what I will change,’ have something powerful to teach others,” she recently told the Wall Street Journal.

Here are five things divorced couples regret not having done more of with a few comments of my own:

Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, intimacy, marriage, wife August 28, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Have a Quiet Child? Here are Three Things You Must Do

Susan Cain is the best-selling author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking. A popular lecturer, the Harvard-trained lawyer offers terrific insight and advice for everybody in her book, but especially for parents who have “quiet”- tempered children:

“The best thing parents and teachers can do for introverted kids,” she writes, “is to treasure them for who they are, and encourage their passions.”

Here are three things she recommends parents do:

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting, relationships August 21, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Secret to Finding Joy

Do you want to have Christian joy?

Meditate on Him; think about Him. Try to think about the glory of this person, this incomparable person. The New Testament is constantly dealing with this. Our Lord told us that the Holy Spirit has been specially given in order to glorify Him: “He shall not speak of himself … he shall glorify me” (John 16:13-14).

The way to test whether or not our experiences are the work of the Spirit is always to ask what view they give us of Him.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: church, faith August 20, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

VIDEO: How to Make a Difference

In East Los Angeles you’ll find a little boy with a big imagination. Only nine years-old, Caine Monroy spent his summer at his dad’s auto parts store with nothing much to do. So with the help of a little packing tape and a lot of creativity, he turned a back room full of empty boxes into a makeshift arcade.

There was only one problem.

For weeks and weeks, only one person stopped in to play. But that one person got an idea.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: entertainment, events, kids August 16, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Would You Take Friends on Your Honeymoon?

According to a recent article in The New York Times, more and more couples are bringing their friends and even their parents on their honeymoon. In fact, there’s even a newly coined term for the practice:

The Buddymoon.

To borrow Dave Barry’s famous phrase, “No, I’m not making this up.”

Interestingly, though, it’s the newly married couple who are instigating the extended celebration with family and friends.

With cohabitation on the rise, a special romantic getaway for the newlyweds doesn’t quite have the same draw.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, intimacy, marriage, sex, wife August 15, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Two of My Favorite Quotes

“So let the reader who expects this book to be a political exposé slam its covers shut right now. If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”

– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

“When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, policy August 13, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Did You Know Tim Keller Does This?

About nine years ago Kathy and I were contemplating the fact that we had largely failed to pray together over the years. Then Kathy exhorted me like this:

“What if our doctor told us that we had a serious heart condition that in the past was always fatal. However, now there was a pill which, if we took it every night, would keep us alive for years and years. But you could never miss a single night, or you would die.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage August 9, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Dear Stay-at-Home Mom

You’ll never convince me that anybody works harder than a mother. Parenting is a joy-filled experience, of course, but it also requires a tremendous amount of effort. The legendary writer, John Steinbeck, once put it quite succinctly. “It takes courage,” he wrote, “to raise children.”

On the lighter side, the comedian Bill Cosby has always been deft at reminding us to not take ourselves too seriously. “No matter how calmly you try to referee,” he once said, “parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I’m not talking about the kids.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, kids, parenting August 8, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What One Mom Has Learned from the Olympics

The London Games continue to serve up hours and hours of spirited fun for millions around the world. For parents, the Olympics also provide all kinds of “teachable moments” for our kids, from talking about the dedication required in training to how to handle disappointment when a medal is just beyond reach.

For one mom, the delayed broadcast of the Games has also served to give her some much needed perspective. Christy Cabe is a talented writer who chronicles life with a mother’s heart because, well, she’s a happy mom who is busily raising three young children.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: entertainment, family, kids, parenting, pop culture August 2, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What You Might Not Know About Olympian Missy Franklin

Missy Franklin has good timing – no pun intended.

At a moment when the country is hungry for some good news, for a hero to root for and an uplifting story about a star who will make you smile, the 17-year-old Coloradoan’s performance at the Summer Olympics seems to be just what the doctor ordered.

Have you been watching the games?

The family and I have been following the Olympics each night, especially the swimming, and we’re really getting into it.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, kids, parenting August 1, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura