Daly Focus Blog
Dad, don’t let your teenage daughter fool you.
She needs you.
I know her attitude may not always reflect that, but it’s true. She’s caught in a whirlwind of uncertainty, hormones, and confusing messages that skew her sense of identity and self-worth. On top of that, her social world is topsy-turvy, and she’s growing, changing, and feeling awkward. With you. With everybody.
Along the way, you’ll be tempted to disengage from her and keep her at arm’s length.
To enjoy victory in life, remember: it doesn’t matter how long you’re in the lead … you have to finish well.
The last day of the 2023 Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships featured an unusual outcome in the women’s 400 meter relay. Duke University held the lead from the start. They were fast. Their baton handoffs were smooth and on point. They were picture perfect, even as the University of Miami nearly pulled in front on the final stretch.
The decision to marry someone “for better or for worse” isn’t just a choice that you make once on your wedding day – it’s a choice you make every day, several times a day.
Researchers say that the average person makes about 35,000 decisions a day. Just one of those choices is the choice to love your spouse. When you’re in the day-to-day grind of building your career and parenting your children, intentionality is key in expressing love to your spouse.
The Rubik’s Cube is the best-selling children’s toy in history. It was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik, an architectural design professor who used the cube to teach his students how to analyze design problems in three dimensions.
But before his students could use the cube, Rubik had to figure out how to solve it himself. That posed an immense challenge. The Rubik’s cube has over 43 quintillion combinations. To put that number into perspective, if everyone on earth did one combination a second, all 43 quintillion combinations would take almost 200 years.
I’m a well-organized person. I like things neat and tidy. Generally, that quality leads to positive results in my life. But it can also lead to dashed expectations and conflict. Clutter around the house can really bother me, if I let it.
So can clutter in my schedule. My leadership team here at Focus on the Family helps me manage my time well, but my life is full, and I always have more to do than I have time to do it.
I refused to go to kindergarten.
On my first day, I dug in my heels and wouldn’t walk to school with my siblings. I told my mom no and meant it. I was so stubborn about it that she personally had to usher me down the block and into the building.
I didn’t want to go, but I’m glad I did because something magical happened that first morning.
Her name was Mrs. Smith. My kindergarten teacher.
Most of us have been angry enough to say something spiteful. But a man named Charles Froling got so angry that he built an entire house to express his spite.
In 1908, Charles inherited a patch of land from a relative in Alameda, California. He planned to build a home there, but the city refused to grant him permission. Instead, they appropriated most of his land, so they could build a new city road. Charles appealed to his neighbor for help, but his neighbor was afraid that the city would take his property, too, so he chose not to get involved.
If marriage makes the headlines these days it’s usually for negative reasons, such as a recent survey indicating that while eighty-three percent of young people would like to get married someday, eighty-five percent of them think an official union isn’t necessary to “have a fulfilling and committed relationship.”
According to official statistics, marriage rates have dropped 60 percent over the last fifty years, and those cohabitating have risen exponentially. Not surprisingly, singleness is also going up.
Who is smarter? Albert Einstein? Or your neighborhood auto mechanic?
A lot of people would answer Einstein. But if Einstein’s car broke down on the side of the road, his ability to untangle physics’ greatest mysteries would be useless. In that moment, what he’d need is an understanding of the inner workings of the combustion engine.
Intelligence is relative to our circumstances. So is athletic ability. J.J. Watt, the former pro football player and Defensive Player of the Year, was a stellar athlete.
“Here’s the story of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely girls…”
You could probably finish that theme song from memory. The Brady Bunch portrayed the quintessential television family of the early 1970s, largely through its wholesome, albeit simplistic, depiction of a blended family.
But while problems are easily resolved in 30 minutes in the world of television sitcoms, things are rarely that simple in real life. Rebuilding a family is closer to Gil and Brenda Stuart than to Mike and Carol Brady.
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.
