Family and Home Archives

Sharing Your Faith with Your Kids

One of the main reasons parents contact Focus on the Family is for help sharing their faith with their children.

Our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Sharing Your Faith with Your Kids” is designed to address that concern by equipping parents to share their faith and disciple their children more intentionally.

Our guest is Natalie Frisk, author of the book Raising Disciples: How to Make Faith Matter for Our Kids. She believes that having conversations about God with children in every stage of life helps make these discussions less awkward and more meaningful.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: parenting January 19, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Abortion Activists Hold Inhumane and Indefensible Positions on Life

Last Wednesday’s passage of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act in the House of Representatives elicited a predictable yet inexplicable chorus of criticism from pro-abortion Democrats.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the bill part of an “extreme anti-choice agenda.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., echoed Pelosi’s sentiments, suggesting the vote to protect babies born alive after a botched abortion represented “extremist views on women’s health.”

Ironically, it’s the leftists in the abortion industry who represent the most extreme positions on any of the hot-button issues in America today.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith January 18, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How to Talk to Your Husband

Ladies, if you want to talk to your husband in a way that he’ll listen, here’s a tip you may never have thought about: follow the design of sports talk shows on television.

Broadcasters know how guys think and how to speak their language. Switch on a sports show, and you’ll notice that they spend a lot of time showing highlights of great plays. The clips are fast-paced and drop guys right into the action. It’s not until after the clip is rolling that the announcer offers a more in-depth explanation of what’s happening.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage January 18, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Being Completely Transparent with Your Spouse

What does intimacy look like in a thriving marriage?

Pronounce the word “intimacy” as “Into me, see,” and the answer becomes clearer.

Healthy couples learn to “see into” one another’s hearts. They discover their spouse’s likes and dislikes, prioritize their spouse’s needs, and see life from a perspective that’s different from their own.

Intimacy is not an empty emotion that comes and goes but a commitment, a beautiful action in which we give of ourselves freely, even sacrificially (1 Cor.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage January 18, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Something to Live For?

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

That’s a worthwhile question for anyone to ponder – but especially a parent. Your answer has a tremendous impact on your health, your happiness, and the legacy you leave behind for your kids.

That was the conclusion of a coalition of doctors who conducted a study to determine just how important “happiness” and “a sense of meaning” were to a person’s overall well-being. Their discoveries surprised them.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith January 13, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Letting Go of Offenses

Why are we so easily angered?

Anger can be good for us when it’s a protest against mistreatment in an abusive or threatening situation, or when it motivates us to seek safety from danger.

But we’re not always good managers of our anger. We feel threatened when we don’t need to be. We get emotionally worked up over mild grievances that don’t deserve a response. We use a fire hose to put out a match.

Even Christians, who believe in the fruit of the Spirit, get upset with the guy that cuts us off on the highway, or irritated when something doesn’t go our way, or frustrated when we feel like we’re not getting what we deserve.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith January 13, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Wealthy? Or Poor?

How wealthy are you?

Before you answer with a dollar figure or a list of your assets, let me tell you a story. It’s about a wealthy father who wanted to teach his son a lesson about gratitude. To show his son just how poor other people could be, he arranged for him to spend some time in the country with a family who lived in an old, drafty farmhouse.

When the son came home a few days later, the father asked him, “Did you learn something about what it means to be poor?”

The son responded, “I sure did.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith January 12, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Be a Selfless Man

Guys, how selflessly do you love your wife? Do you have a bit too much me, myself, and I in the mix?

Here’s a quick test to find out. Imagine that you and your buddies plan a get together at your house to watch the Super Bowl. The night of the big game, everybody shows up with drinks, pretzels, and pizza. You’re just settling in for the kickoff … when the phone rings. Your wife is on the other end.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family January 10, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Greatest Joys

The family is under attack.

Two of the more disturbing examples are ideas that have gained acceptance more and more in recent years. The first is that dads don’t matter. The second is that kids get in the way of adult happiness. I’m here to tell you they’re both lies.

First of all, make no mistake, dads do matter. Every day at Focus, we hear from families all over the country. The stories they share confirm to me again and again just how crucial a father’s influence is in the lives of his children.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family January 9, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Simple Tips for Growing Closer to Your Kids

Most couples expect the skills for raising children to come to them naturally. Certain parenting instincts “kick into gear” when you become a mom or a dad, of course, but most of us are surprised by how challenging parenting can be and how much hard work and energy it requires.

It’s human nature to look for short-cuts or “formulas” to make the job easier. But there are no formulas.

God puts every parent on a journey to discover who their children are and what their children most need to become who they were designed to be.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: parenting January 9, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura