Daly Focus Blog
Focus on the Family has been unashamedly pro-life since our inception 44 years ago. The affirmation of human life is one of our foundational principles, and I pray that however long the Lord allows our organization to exist, it will remain so.
You and I have an important part to play individually as well. Voting for pro-life candidates and supporting ballot initiatives is a good start. Yet, we often wish women with unplanned pregnancies, “Good luck,” from a safe distance.
Several years ago, wildfires swept through an area not far from the Daly home. We were forced to evacuate.
Emergencies can strike any of us at any time. We’re never promised an easy life without worries. Where you live might be susceptible to wildfires, hurricanes, or tornadoes. And we all face the risk of job loss, chronic or terminal illness, or the death of a loved one. How we react to these situations is what’s important.
We sat around the living room, trying to be productive while facing death. The date was Wednesday, October 28, 2020, and tomorrow would be my Mother’s long-awaited funeral. Her cousin, Andy Cook, a highly respected minister, was asking me and my family rapid fire questions about her life as he prepared to deliver the eulogy.
The conversation was like reopening an old wound. Mom had died six months earlier on April 19th, after a battle with cancer.
Fire can cook you a juicy steak. Or it can burn your house to the ground. The difference lies in how well you harness the power of fire.
It’s the same with a strong will. There is a lot of good that comes from having what LeRoy and Kimberly Wagner describe as a “fierce” personality. But a strong-will gone wild can also wreak havoc.
If a woman isn’t in control of her strength, she can emasculate her husband.
Author Lee Strobel believes that family is the answer for today’s children to become “the greatest generation that has ever lived for Jesus Christ.”
He has strong evidence to back up that claim. Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara conducted a landmark multigenerational study concluding that parents are fundamental in passing down religious beliefs to their children.
In addition, the study affirmed that having a close bond with one’s father is the single biggest influence in a child’s life.
There’s a buzzword in culture that supposedly reveals the secret to a happy marriage.
“Chemistry.”
Successful relationships, we’re told, ultimately boil down to two people who naturally share common beliefs and interests, without effort.
Obviously, the more points of agreement between a husband and wife, the better. But in God’s economy, the secret to a thriving marriage isn’t in a couple’s similarities, but in how they handle their differences.
The same differences that so powerfully draw couples together when they’re courting or dating often drive them apart in marriage.
Self-rejection is dangerous.
Author Henri Nouwen once said, “The greatest trap in life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from … self-rejection.”
Self-rejection usually begins as a lie communicated to us by others. Over time that message weaves itself into our lives and infects every relationship we’re in, including our relationship with God.
I’m sure you remember the moment when certain lies took root in your life.
“Mayday! Mayday!”
You recognize that distress call, don’t you? Even children have a rough idea of what it means. And the fact that they do reveals something important about effective communication.
The “mayday” distress code was designed to be simple and easy to understand. It was created in 1923 by Frederick Mockford, an airport radio officer in London, after his boss challenged him to devise a distress code that would easily be understood by pilots and ground staff in an emergency.
Kyle Poulson was eight years old when he was told that he was adopted – a moment that became an anchor in his life. He felt blessed to grow up in a loving family with faithful Christian parents who wanted him.
Kyle’s adoptive father died in 1995. Before his adoptive mother passed away in 2016, she encouraged Kyle to find his birth mother, a process he began in February of 2017. Because the records were closed, he ran into dead end after dead end and thought he might never find his birth mother.
Strong-willed women, on the other hand, are often characterized as “bossy” or “controlling.”
Author Cynthia Tobias says that strong-willed women are trail blazers. Strong-willed women:
God doesn’t want to rid women of their personalities. He wants to direct their strong wills and use them for His purposes. When women submit themselves to the Lord, He can channel their strength into transforming their marriages, influencing their children in the right direction, and seeing God’s kingdom advanced in whatever other ways the Lord chooses to use them.
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.
