Family and Home Archives

Here’s a Good Daily Habit to Make

Be Still
One of the most difficult things in life is to be still. There is so much noise – the noises of the world, exaggerated by television, radio, and so on.

Noise!

But you have to be still, you must stop, you must be isolated, you must think.

You cannot meet with the Lord in the midst of the noise and the bustle and the fury of life. You may be a very busy person, but stillness is still possible.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: events July 5, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

7 Rules to Help You Stop Worrying

When the late Dale Carnegie released How to Win Friends and Influence People in October of 1936, the $2 book sold over 100,000 copies its first few months on store shelves. Seventy-three years and 15 million copies later, the title and its content remain timeless.

Why?

At the time of Mr. Carnegie’s death on November 1, 1955, the obituary writers of the The New York Times drew the following conclusion:
Mr. Carnegie’s advice for successful living might be summed up in two of his maxims: “Forget yourself; do things for others,” and “Cooperate with the inevitable.”

Isn’t that great?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith July 4, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Tebow, Kardashian and Our Worship of Idols

All it takes is a 30-second perusal of the supermarket tabloids to confirm what you already know:

There is an excessive, if not obsessive, draw to celebrity in the culture. From Tim Tebow to Kate Middleton to Kim Kardashian, people are drawn to certain individuals, for any number of reasons.

But a fascination with the famous is by no means a new phenomenon. It manifests itself differently today than 50 years ago, but human nature is still the same.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: news, pop culture July 2, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Nine Ways To Growing Old More Happily

The wise person, as he grows older, must turn to the perfecting of his creative and appreciative abilities, which mellow and improve with age. He must take inventory of his personality, realizing that whatever it is now, so it will tend to be in later years, multiplied many times.

[If you want to grow older happily] Ask yourself these nine determinative questions:

Am I self-centered, or do I take other people’s needs and desires into account as well as my own?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: discipline, faith July 1, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Are You Ready for the Greatest Surprise of Your Life?

Possibly one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen. This may be one of our greatest troubles today.We come to our services, and they are orderly, they are nice – we come, we go – and sometimes they are timed almost to the minute. But that is not Christianity, my friend. Where is the Lord of glory?

Where is the One sitting by the well?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: church, faith, family June 28, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

When Fire Forces You from Home

If you had only a few minutes to gather up a few select treasures of your life before fleeing a raging inferno, what would you take – and what would you leave behind?

Families in Colorado Springs were faced with this very question this past Tuesday. In just a matter of minutes, a wildfire that had been contained in canyons bordering the city swept down through the hillsides. The sky, which had been sunny, turned red.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, news June 28, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Six Tips for an Easier Family Getaway

In a post last week, I mentioned the many disasters that seemed to befall TV’s Brady family while on vacations. From losing Bobby in the Grand Canyon to getting locked in an old jailhouse, all on the same trip, one might be left with the impression that a family getaway is akin to playing with fire.

Why even bother going anywhere?

We go because trips can be a lot of fun. I have some great memories as a kid going from here to there in the car.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: entertainment, family, parenting June 27, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

When Your Pet Dies

There were two dogs throughout my youth, a pug named Sir George and a Great Dane named Duke. I guess the Dalys felt a certain kinship to English royalty, even as I poured Kool-Aid over my Cheerios. (There wasn’t always enough money for milk.)

Duke and Sir George were my sister’s dogs and so in many ways, I had the best of both worlds. I enjoyed playing with them under the warm California sun, but never had to feed or tend to their needs.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting June 26, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Trying to Determine When a Date is a Date

It’s not a trick question. When it comes to two single people of the opposite sex sharing a meal or a movie together, when does it become a “date” – as opposed to just two people of the opposite sex sharing a meal or a movie together?

A group of my colleagues and I were talking about this the other day. The consensus seemed to be centered on the matter of money.

If the guy pays, it’s probably a date.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: intimacy, marriage June 25, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Real War on Women

If you ingest a steady dose of daily news, it would be easy to grow weary of the din of the average day, the discordant sounds of a culture awash in controversy. An issue may startle and grab you, but just as soon as you begin to digest it, another wild and upsetting story comes along, like the rolling tide of a stormy sea.

I was thinking about this the other day, pondering how it’s possible that both the president of the United States and the House of Representatives support sex-selection abortion.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting, pop culture, pro-life June 24, 2012 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura