Daly Focus Blog
It’s amazing what you can learn about yourself when life gets messy.
My son Troy and I were once on a camping trip, filled with horse rides and hikes through the woods. But one night, just as we were about to hit the sack, I noticed Troy looking a little green. When I asked him how he felt, he said, “Not so good.”
That was just the beginning. Later, at about two in the morning, I awoke to the sound of Trent retching.
Focus on the Family President Jim Daly writes:
Have you ever noticed that the more you have, the more you want – and that the never-ending grasp for things beyond your reach is not only making you miserable, but also hurting your relationships with the people closest to you?
That’s the conclusion of a new study, “Money Over Marriage,” that finds materialism is behind so much of the relationship tension we experience – and cheapening the very sacred institution itself.
I read an analysis of the research findings this past weekend, which dipped into some of the higher-profile cases that make headlines, such as the reported tension inside NFL’s Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen’s marriage.
Author Cynthia Tobias humorously says that every strong-willed person lives according to the same motto: “I’m not bossy. I just know what you need to do.”
She didn’t always consider it a joke. In fact, it used to cause her trouble. Like an incident that occurred while she was working in law enforcement. She was working alone and pulled a guy over running a red light. Before she got to his door, he had rolled down his window and was yelling at her, “You can’t give me a ticket.
I’m not sure what’s more astonishing: the magnificence of the universe … or our ability to be oblivious to it. I mean, when was the last time you thought about the sun? Except for deciding whether to grab a jacket, you probably don’t.
Did you know that the sun is so large that you can fit 1.3 million earths inside of it. The sun doesn’t seem that big because it’s 93 million miles away from us.
Albert Einstein once said, “Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity … and I’m not sure about the universe.”
Einstein’s pessimism about humanity was well-founded. We see ourselves as sophisticated, intelligent, and basically good at heart. And yet the history of the world is a devastating indictment to the contrary. Humanity’s potential for brutality and evil is astonishing.
Secular thinkers explain our potential for evil as some ancient evolutionary mechanism we can’t shake.
One of the hardest things about life on this side of eternity is unexpected trauma. We can be blindsided by a terrible accident, a frightening diagnosis, or any number of unforeseen circumstances, experiences that can shake our faith.
All of us have pondered the question of why bad things happen to good people, including those of us who seek to serve a good God. Answers to that question and others are messy and difficult by definition.
Couples often assume that love is self-sustaining. The truth is you have to invest in it, or it will die.
When Jean and I first started dating, I lived in San Diego, and she lived in Orange County. At the time, she was working evenings at a veterinary clinic, so I occasionally drove 90 miles to bring her dinner. I was willing to inconvenience myself to show my interest.
Fast forward to the early years of our marriage, and my attitude changed.
Sometimes sheer determination is the only way to overcome tough circumstances.
After President John F. Kennedy died in November of 1963, Corporal Keith C. Clark, the Principal Bugler with the United States Army Band, was called upon to play Taps at the funeral.
At the end of the heartbreaking service, with the eyes and ears of the nation upon him, Clark steadied his trembling emotions and began. At first, his playing was flawless, each note perfectly intonated and reverent for the moment.
Some things aren’t worth what they cost in the long run. A humorous metaphor for that is an unlucky baseball fan in San Francisco. He tried to catch a couple foul balls at a baseball game, and it cost him a small fortune.
It all started at the top of the second inning when a foul ball was hit his way. He’d just sat down with $25 worth of food after waiting in line for thirty minutes.
Today is Bring Your Bible to School day, a nationwide, student-led movement that’s observed by hundreds of thousands of students from over 50,000 schools across the country. Today’s events are designed for two purposes:
To share the Bible’s message of love and grace.To celebrate religious liberty and freedom of speech in the United States.
To highlight those objectives, our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Leaving a Legacy of Faith” is featuring a recorded talk titled “The Family Circle” by founder and president of Winning at Home, Dan Seaborn.
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.
