Family and Home Archives

Abandoning Idols to Cling to God

Have you ever felt so caught up in what you wanted that you struggled to seek God’s will?

I struggled with that in high school when I had hopes of playing pro football. But God had different plans for me.

Learning to trust God has been a long journey for our guest on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Abandoning Idols to Cling to God,” Christian recording artist Phil Stacey.

After growing up in a musical Christian family, Phil was featured as a soloist for the Lee Singers, one of Lee University’s premiere touring ensembles.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith March 25, 2022 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Focusing on Your Family’s Mental Health

Have you heard of the Better-Than-Average Effect?

That’s a term that arose out of psychological studies indicating that we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to. The Better-Than-Average Effect shows up in every area of life, but one of the most common is overestimating our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.

The trouble is, when we perceive things to be better than they really are, we’re less likely to make improvements. Instead of investing in our well-being, we put things on autopilot.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family March 24, 2022 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Jim Daly Statement Opposing the Supreme Court Nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

Americans have been watching and listening with interest to the ongoing confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. A federal appeals court judge and the first black woman to be nominated to the High Court, President Biden’s pick to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer possesses a highly decorated résumé.

But an academically and professionally accomplished biography doesn’t necessarily equate to suitability for the Supreme Court of the United States.

During the past three days of spirited questioning from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Jackson has confirmed suspicions that she subscribes to an expansive and progressive view of the Constitution.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: news March 23, 2022 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Nurturing Your Child’s Personality

God wires each one of us uniquely. Which is why learning who your children are, how they think, and what motivates them are critical skills to develop.

Years ago, when my older son Trent was in elementary school, he came home and said, “Guess what, Dad? I won a gold medal! In chess!” I still feel a guilty about that moment because I thought, “Really? Chess?” I had hoped that he’d want to be a football player like me.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting March 22, 2022 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Finding God on the Streets

By age 10, Dimas Salaberrios had discovered the seedy underbelly of Queens, New York, learned how it worked, and mapped out his future.

He would become the “Street God.”

Dimas became a drug dealer at age 11. By his early twenties, he’d been arrested nine times. Yet, he never served time in jail thanks to parents who had connections to judges and the money to protect him with well-paid lawyers. After Dimas’ tenth arrest, he was sent to Rikers Island for a year.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith March 17, 2022 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Surviving Divorce and Single Parenthood

The permanence of marriage is one of our foundational principles here at Focus on the Family. We believe that marriage is a sacred covenant designed by God that benefits not only husbands and wives, but society as a whole.

That’s biblical. Matthew 19:5-6 says, “A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh … what God has joined together, let no man separate.”

That said, we acknowledge that we live in a world that’s broken by sin, where the potential always exists for marriages to self-destruct because one or both spouses walk away from their commitment and aren’t willing to restore the relationship.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage, parenting March 15, 2022 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Building a Solid Christian Worldview

Your worldview is important. It helps you answer life’s most basic questions:

Creation – How things began.Fall – What’s gone wrong with the world.Redemption – The solution for fixing what’s gone wrong with the world.Restoration – What the world will look like once redemption has taken place.

Whether you realize it or not, you do have a worldview. You either fill in the blanks with random answers, or you seek truth like you’re assembling a jigsaw puzzle, thoughtfully and carefully putting small pieces of information together to form a bigger, unified picture of reality.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith March 14, 2022 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Radical Colorado Pro-Abortion Bill is Pure Evil

National momentum may be moving in the direction of life, but radical abortion activists and legislators here in Colorado are determined to enshrine unfettered access to the killing of innocent life.

As I write this on Friday afternoon, pro-life legislators up at the Denver Capitol are filibustering HB22-1279, a bill that will codify a right to abortion and prohibit any future restrictions to the heinous act. Food and cots have been brought in to help support the effort.

Just this past week, Focus on the Family’s Nicole Hunt spent over 12 hours up at the state house waiting to testify against the legislation.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: pro-life March 11, 2022 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Practical Advice for Raising Responsible Children

Kay Wyma is a popular author, blogger, and mother to five children. One of her friends is a human resources director who told her about a phone interview she had with a young man who had just graduated from college. Their conversation was going well until she heard the voice of the boy’s father. He was listening in and advising his son how to answer questions. Kay’s friend immediately rescinded her offer and informed the father that his twenty-something-year-old son ought to be capable of interviewing for jobs on his own.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, kids, parenting March 11, 2022 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Seeing Suffering Through God’s Eyes

Someone once said, “The hardest thing that I’ve ever heard was that my child died. The hardest thing that I’ve ever done is live every day since.”

Levi and Jennie Lusko are the founders and lead pastors of Fresh Life Church, a multi-site ministry located in Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Utah. In December of 2012, five days before Christmas, they were enjoying a weekly date-night while a relative watched their children. When the Luskos arrived to pick up their children, five-year-old Lenya was having a severe asthma attack.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith March 9, 2022 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura