Family and Home Archives

Who Has Changed Your Life?

Is there one person you can point to who helped “turn the tide” in your life?

When I think about that question, my mind immediately settles on a man named Mo – my high school football coach. At the time, my life was a mess. Without a parent to guide me, Coach Mo became my mentor. He encouraged and believed in me. He didn’t just teach me about football. He was a steady, dependable, wise and bold influence.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: entertainment, events, faith, pop culture August 31, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Where Has God Dropped You?

My friend and colleague, Gary Schneeberger, is Focus on the Family’s vice president of Communications. He recently hosted a group of foreign journalists who came to the United States as part of the East-West Center’s Senior Journalists Seminar. This year’s group included professionals from places like Pakistan, Malaysia, Afghanistan, the Philippines and Thailand. The purpose of the program is for chroniclers of various cultures to get a flavor of each other and the issues that drive news in each place.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith August 26, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Celebrating Our Silver Anniversary

We were married on August 24, 1986, a sun drenched day in Santa Ana, California. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years, a full quarter-century!

I first met Jean Stephens in 1985 at a wedding in California. People often say that weddings are great places to meet people (for good reason!), but at the time I wasn’t interested in finding a girlfriend. Honest! I had recently returned from a year in Japan and graduated from college.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, marriage August 25, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Your First Lunch Box

Do you remember your first lunch box?

Mine was a G.I. Joe model, used and dented, but I loved it.

Lunch boxes go way back, over a hundred years, in fact. Then they were called “lunch pails” and were usually recycled cans that originally held biscuits or even tobacco. It wasn’t until the 1950s when the Aladdin Corporation struck upon an idea, leading to the explosion of the themed boxes so many of us remember. Realizing that a metal box was durable and thus likely handed down in a family, executives decided to put celebrities and pop culture icons on the side.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: entertainment, faith, kids August 24, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Marriage is Good for Your Heart

You’ve heard the adage, “Happy wife, happy life,” but how about this one:

The happier your marriage, the better your chance of surviving and recovering from heart surgery.

It’s true.

According to a new study out of the University of Rochester, the better a person’s marriage, the more likely they are to live longer after heart surgery than those who are single or unhappy in marriage.

“I can only imagine that people who have a good marriage are pretty happy people,” said a Boston cardiac surgeon, Robert Hagberg.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, marriage August 23, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Talking Teen Rage

What’s the main cause of teenage rage in America?

Is it a matter of poor parenting – or no parenting at all?

Writing in last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan drew a chilling parallel between fatherless homes and the riots we’re seeing in England, as well as the “flash mob” incidents that have been occurring with increasing frequency here in the U.S.

In regard to what to do about it, Ms. Noonan reflected:

The normal, old response to an emerging problem such as this has been: The government has to do something.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: adoption, family, parenting August 21, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Solution to All Your Problems – #1

I’m sure you’ve noticed that people are especially anxious these days. If you’re one of them, I would commend this recommendation to you, courtesy of the late Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd Jones:

Read Your Bible!
Every conceivable experience which the Christian may have to face has already been met and dealt with somewhere in the Scriptures. There is no such thing as a new experience in the realm of the Spirit; you will find everything catered for here.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith August 18, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Is Facebook Good for Your Child?

Writing in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Shirley S. Wang reports:

Several recent studies have found that digital communications can lead to more or better friendships, online and off, greater honesty, faster intimacy in relationships and an increased sense of belonging, in addition to practical social benefits like an expanded circle for networking.

She continued:

… researchers found users expressed a significant amount of empathy online, and that the more time college students spent on Facebook, the more empathy they expressed online and in real life.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, kids, parenting, technology August 17, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

One Amazing Dog

Have you ever heard of the Karelian Bear Dog? I hadn’t, until last week, when I caught a short documentary about the breed during an airplane flight.

Weighing between 40 and 65 pounds, the dog looks like a cross between a Husky and an Irish Wolfhound. Stocky and marked by a heavy black and white coat with expressive ears, they were originally bred in Russia and Finland to hunt big game, in addition to protecting farmers from bear attacks.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, relationships August 16, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Does Faith and Prayer Distract America?

As many of you know, I’m privileged to serve on a panel for the Washington Post’s On Faith blog, a weekly “conversation on religion and politics.” I’d invite you to visit the site, which I think you’ll find contains some robust dialog. All of my contributions are archived here.

I’d like to share the latest installment of the feature with you. It concerns last week’s important and powerful gathering of Christians in Houston.

After you’ve had a chance to read the following perspective and reaction to the question, I’d love to hear from you.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith August 15, 2011 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura