Daly Focus Blog
Jeff and Cheryl Scruggs were married for ten years.
The first time.
In their mid-twenties, Jeff and Cheryl moved to Los Angeles and lived a stereotypical California lifestyle. They were successful at their jobs. They made a lot of money. They even had an ocean-front home with all of the right stuff to fill it. Yet, their marriage was mostly empty.
Cheryl thought their lack of intimacy would eventually correct itself.
It didn’t.
She thought the birth of their twins would fill their emptiness.
What’s the single most important thing you can do for your relationship?
Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott answer that question with a simple: get healthy. Your relationship with your kids, your friends, and your spouse will only be as healthy as you are. Becoming healthy requires allowing God’s word to higlight your strengths and weaknesses.
The Parrotts once visited Michelangelo’s famous statue King David while visiting Italy. Thousands of other people were there that day as well.
Our country is at a crossroads. Society is rapidly changing – and not always for the better. Some people call it “woke” or “cancel” culture, where only certain points of view are allowed to be expressed.
Many Americans feel like these disturbing seismic changes happened overnight. The truth is our culture has been chipping away at the Judeo-Christian value system for decades. Increasingly, the Christian viewpoint is unwelcome in public settings. And that problem will only become more challenging for families and for the church.
I have strong feelings about the importance of dads being in the home. That’s partly because of my experiences. I’ve seen the impact of fatherlessness up close and personal. My stepdad abandoned me and my siblings within hours of my mother’s funeral. A few years later, my biological father died of alcoholism, and I spent time in foster care.
My views are reinforced by the data. Every scientific measurement of child well-being around the globe consistently reveals that fatherlessness is profoundly harmful to children and society.
When does life begin?
Can only women have children?
Recent answers from liberals to both of these hotly debated questions might surprise you.
In a stunning admission, New York Times correspondent Jonathan Weisman acknowledged, perhaps inadvertently, what science and common sense have long affirmed – that life begins at conception.
The startling comments from one of the nation’s historically liberal newspapers came in an article detailing the Democrat party’s push to pass an unprecedented $3.5 million budget designed to dramatically expand nearly every area of social welfare.
Most newlyweds view their marriage as an empty canvas. It’s a perfectly clean, white surface where a beautiful portrait of their marriage will appear.
The reality is usually quite different. Each of us enters into marriage with color already splashed across our canvas, colors that reflect a set of expectations we may not even realize we have. The influences on our marriage begin not during the dating phase or at the wedding, but with assumptions about relationships that are formed from childhood.
Do you have a father story?
For good or bad, our dads cast a long shadow across our lives.
Readers of this blog likely know that my biological dad, stepdad and foster dad all let me down – and all by the time I turned 13.
While the majority of people may not have suffered from that degree of disappointment, sadly, my challenges coming from a broken home are no longer that unusual.
According to the most recent data, a quarter of children – or 17.4 million – live in a home without a dad.
A new documentary by the Kendrick Brothers (“War Room” & “Courageous”) aims to shine a bright light on the connection between our earthly, imperfect dads and our Heavenly Father, who can ultimately meet our every need.
It’s called, “Show Me the Father” and it opens this Friday, September 10th.
I was privileged to participate in the project, and have been praying that my story, warts and all, might minister to those who will be watching.
Stephen and Alex Kendrick see the film as a calling – not simply another creative project.
According to Stephen, “God said, ‘You need to make this documentary about fatherhood.’ So we moved forward by faith, and we were able to connect with some of the coolest, most emotional stories about fatherhood.
Chad Robichaux is a “man’s man.”
The former special forces Marine has served eight tours in Afghanistan, tackling the most dangerous and difficult of missions in the Middle East. A Medal of Valor recipient, Chad has more than served his time and paid his debt to America.
Nobody would blame him if he retired to a quiet beach or picturesque mountain town.
Instead, the founder of the Mighty Oaks Foundation – a non-profit organization specializing in serving returning military personnel from Afghanistan – has slept an hour a day for the past two weeks.
Do you know your “why”?
People often begin a spiritual journey with these questions:
“How will I serve God?”“Where will I serve God?”“When will I serve God?”“What will be required of me when I pursue God’s will for my life?”
However, God’s purpose for your spiritual journey, for your work, and for your family starts with “why?”
Unless you first tackle the “why” question, everything else – your finances, your background, your education, your training, your age, and so on – becomes a mountain that prevents you from moving forward.
If your schedule looks anything like mine, then you are busy! Our world is fast paced. We’re booked solid with work, family, and obligations to our church and community. Keeping up takes constant effort and makes finding margin difficult.
A positive first step is recognizing that moments of rest are just as crucial to a healthy life as productivity. Even God the Father took time to rest (Genesis 2:2). So did Jesus (Matthew 14:23).
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.
