Family and Home Archives

Hope in a Box

Food and hope go together.

That perspective dawned on me last weekend while speaking at a Children’s Hunger Fund charitable dinner at the Reagan Library. Based on my personal experience and what I’ve observed in my travels, I’d say this insight is especially true for children. Hunger has a way of devouring their hope and robbing their dreams. Conversely, even in the wake of a natural disaster, if there’s food on the table there’s hope that tomorrow might just be better.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: church, events, kids May 1, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Miss USA Judge: A Case of Religious Persecution

When celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton—an intolerant Miss USA pageant judge with an ax to grind—asked Miss California about her views on same-sex marriage, Carrie Prejean didn’t back down or compromise her beliefs. Even though she knew her response might just cost her the crown, she did the right thing. Her answer came from a place of deep conviction . . . and just happens to represent the prevailing viewpoint of the Californians she represents.

Perez asked the politically-charged question, “Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: events, homosexuality, marriage, pop culture April 30, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

A Supermodel’s Pro-life Journey

Last weekend, I was in Memphis speaking to a group of 1,200 attendees at the LifeChoices Banquet. LifeChoices has been helping women in the greater Memphis area facing a crisis pregnancy since 1986. In 1987, LifeChoices became a state-licensed child-placing agency that has found loving homes for children who would have otherwise been aborted.

Two years ago, they added a number of medical services, including ultrasound and diagnostic pregnancy testing and, more recently, opened a counseling center and medical clinic minutes from three abortion clinics.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: policy, pro-life April 28, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Never Forget

Last year I blogged about a father who, while walking to McDonald’s with his four-year-old daughter, observed the erratic driving of an oncoming car. As the vehicle barreled down on them, with the impact just seconds away, this father instinctively knew what he had to do. Giving no thought to persevering his own life, he grabbed his daughter and held her above his head. His quick action prevented her from being crushed by several thousand pounds of steel.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith April 22, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Giving the Shirt Off Their Back

Last April, we invited our Clubhouse Jr. readers to help us collect tank tops for African orphans. The response was inspiring. From yard sales to bake sales, pizza parties to birthday celebrations, an army of little hands eagerly accepted the challenge. Pooling their creativity and resources, they engaged their families, neighborhoods, churches and schools. When the deadline arrived last July, children as young as 2-years-old from around the country flooded us with tank tops in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting April 16, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Christians Under Fire In Iraq

About a month after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, two of us at Focus on the Family traveled to Baghdad, the capital of Iraq. Our goal was to determine whether or not open doors existed for Focus to minister to Iraqi families in that war-torn country. At 4:30 a.m., we piled into two GMC Suburbans and departed from Amman, Jordan for the 10-hour drive to Baghdad. Keep in mind, although the war had ended, Iraq was still very much a hotbed of violence.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: events, faith, religious liberty April 14, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Should Uncle Sam Raise Your Children?

Truth is stranger than fiction.

Take the case of a West Virginia mother who was ordered by a local circuit judge and a family court judge to share custody of her four-year-old girl—not with her ex-husband or other relative, but with two babysitters! It gets worse. These justices, who viewed the babysitters as “psychological co-parents”, also granted them full custody. The mother, in turn, was told she could only visit her daughter four times a week at McDonalds.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: events, parenting, policy, relationships April 8, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Deficit of Family Values Impacts Financial Markets

If you are like most Americans, you’ve watched your retirement savings shrink with the plunging stock market. You might be one of the hundreds of thousands without work searching for a job as unemployment soars. And the forecast out of Washington, D.C. these days says we’re in for tough times. America isn’t the only country rocked by such economic turbulence. Countries around the world are in the same boat.

Which is why the current global economic crisis was the hot topic at last week’s G-20 summit of world leaders in London.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: church, faith, family, finances April 7, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

He Finished Well

Here’s a conversation stopper: try talking about the topic of death with dinner guests. See how long it takes before someone wants to change the subject. Death and dying makes us uncomfortable, doesn’t it? Even Christians, who have the promise of spending eternity with Jesus, don’t necessarily like to linger on the reality that death is a very real part of life.

They’re two sides of the coin.

As the saying goes, none of us gets out of here alive.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage March 31, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Who’s Your Daddy?

There’s an Associated Press story last week that caught my eye. Here’s the headline: US Births Break Record; 40% are out-of-wedlock. The article reported that “More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any other year in the nation’s history, topping the peak during the baby boom 50 years earlier.”

Nothing wrong with an up tick in births, that is, until you consider the fact that 40% of the 4.3 million babies were born to unwed mothers.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: adoption, kids, news, parenting March 24, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura