Daly Focus Blog
You’re probably running a lot of directions at high speed. You’re so busy that even after your workday ends, there’s more work to be done. Somebody has to pick up the kids from soccer practice and run to the store for groceries. After that, you still have to get home and make dinner, which can take a couple of hours once you cook, eat and clean up the mess.
Who’s got time for that?
Hiring a chef or buying pre-packaged dinners can be expensive.
Ten minutes. That’s all it takes to turn your marriage around.
Sound too easy? Widely respected marriage therapist Dr. John Gottman has published research that shows unhappy couples can dramatically change their relationship if they’ll devote at least ten minutes throughout the day to one another.
It’s what happens in those ten minutes that the magic happens. It’s where couples “turn toward” one another. That means couples shift their focus away from work, kids, and other distractions of the day and turn their attention toward their spouse.
People who aren’t religious typically share a common belief: They only trust in tangible things that can be physically detected. That sounds reasonable until you realize how much of reality exists outside our ability to perceive it.
Let me give you an example. Scientists talk about a thing called Absolute Zero. That’s the temperature at which all heat in a system is completely gone – so cold that even atoms become fully motionless. Absolute Zero is a whopping 460 degrees below zero.
My friend Rob Parsons tells the story of a couple whose daughter disappeared from home in a fit of rebellion on her 18th birthday. Her parents were devastated. For years, they didn’t know if she was alive or dead.
Early on, her mother made a simple decision. Every night she would turn on the porch light and leave it on all night. It was an unspoken message to her daughter: “You’re always welcome home.”
Many nights, tears streamed down the mother’s face as she locked the front door, switched on the light, and prayed for her daughter.
One of the keys to a great marriage is thoughtful, intentional communication. The words you use, the way you speak, your body language and how you listen and respond will either build up your relationship or tear it down.
While strong communication is important for both spouses, husbands often need extra help developing this skill. Author Ryan Frederick is joining me on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly to help husbands love their wives well through good communication habits.
Both of my boys had colic as infants. On a good night, they might only sleep for a couple of hours at a time. Jean and I tried everything to get them to rest, including placing them on top of our clothes dryer, hoping the movement would calm them. Other nights, I would drive Trent – and two years later, Troy – around the neighborhood at two o’clock in the morning. But every time, as soon as I brought them home and lay them down – boom!
Why do kids behave poorly?
According to Dr. Kevin Leman, there are four goals of misbehavior:
Attention. “I only count when others notice me and serve me.”
Power. “I only count when others do what I want them to do when I want them to do it.”
Revenge. “I only count when I hurt others like I’ve been hurt.”
Display of inadequacy. “I’m no good. I’m worth nothing. I can’t do anything right, so why try at all?”
Once you understand why your child misbehaves, the next important question is: what do you do about it?
Here’s a trivia question for you: Which team has the worst win-loss record in all of sports?
The answer is a basketball team called the Washington Generals. They’ve been losing nonstop to the Harlem Globetrotters since 1926 – a mind-bending 16,000 times. Obviously, the Washington Generals are a spoof, but they illustrate the importance of people who make an organization successful even though they never get the spotlight – which is most of us.
The Generals are supposed to lose.
One million.
That’s a big number. But on today of all days, that number takes on even greater value and significance.
That’s because today is Memorial Day, the day we remember over one million Americans who have died in war on behalf of us all.
That figure is astounding by itself. But it’s even more sobering when you reflect on this: every one of those one million has a name, and behind every name is a family whose entire world changed forever because that soldier didn’t come home alive.
Author and speaker Canon J. John tells this story:
A factory employee headed home at the end of a long day, pushing a wheelbarrow. Inside the wheelbarrow was a small box.
At the security gate, the guard stopped him and asked, “What’s in the box?”
The worker replied, “The sawdust from the floor. At the end of the day, it’s swept up and thrown away. I need some, so I put it in a box to take home.”
The guard looked inside the box and, sure enough, it was filled with sawdust.
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.
