Jim Daly

Practical Advice for Those Getting Ready to Wed

Every couple walks down the aisle dreaming of love, romance, and a life of happiness together. In fact, our marriage team here at Focus reports that 93 percent of Americans say a happy marriage is one of their chief objectives in life.

And, yet, the statistics also show that a significant percentage of relationships will end in divorce, and about half of those will occur within the first seven years of marriage.

Why? How does the beauty and promise symbolized in a wedding ceremony deteriorate into a failed marriage and the ugly reality of divorce?

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, couple, engagement, marriage

The Complicated, Beautiful Life of a Foster Mom

May is National Foster Care Awareness Month.

We’re honoring all those who have stepped into the world of adoption and foster care on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “The Complicated, Beautiful Life of a Foster Mom” with our guest Jessie Gallaher. She describes her difficult yet rewarding journey of adopting five children from foster care – all at once!

When they first brought the kids home, many people told Jessie and her husband, “Just love them, and time will heal all of their wounds.” But like most adoptive parents, they discovered that raising children with traumatic backgrounds also requires structure and consistency.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, children, fostering, mother, parenting

A Moment in Times Square and the Lies of the Left

I want to tell you a story.

Just a little over two weeks ago, on the first Saturday in May, I was standing in the middle of New York City’s Times Square.

As many of you know, I was there to participate in Focus on the Family’s historic “Alive from New York” celebration, the largest ever gathering of pro-life supporters in the Empire State.

We had prayed and planned for 10,000 people.

By 3:00 P.M., under a sunny and clear blue sky, nearly 20,000 individuals had flooded into the iconic “Crossroads of the World.”

The invitation to come watch a live 4D ultrasound of a third-trimester baby – in the middle of a city where more black babies are aborted than born each year – had clearly struck a nerve.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: events, New York, Times Square

Finding Your Path in Life

Racing wasn’t
just a day job for NASCAR legend Darrell Waltrip. I can tell you from
experience, he was wired for it. I played golf with him once, and he nearly
took off in the golf cart without me. He wanted to beat the other members in
our group to the next tee. He was literally zigging and zagging all along the
cart path to keep them behind us … where they belonged, apparently. After
Darrell won the short chase, he looked at me and said, “Life is a race
to me.” Darrell is wired for racing.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home

Please Take Action on the So-Called “Equality Act”

The late liberal activist Saul Alinsky, author of the book, Rules for Radicals, once famously observed, “He who controls the language controls the masses.”

While there is probably very little, if almost anything, I agree with Alinsky on, his statement concerning the use of words to frame an issue is spot-on.

Words mean things – but they’re easily manipulated to mean things that are simply not true.

History is full of people who attempt to use soft words to describe dark deeds.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: current events, Equality Act, government, news

Setting Healthy Boundaries with Your Kids

Imagine this scenario: It’s your child’s job to clean up their room, but hours have gone by and they still haven’t gotten the job done, despite repeated reminders from you.

How should you respond?

Lecture them? Ground them? Clean up the room yourself?

The answer is to let good boundaries be your guide. One of the most important functions of parenting is to teach your children how to respect appropriate limits.

Setting healthy boundaries has a lot of benefits, and primary among them is helping children to develop self-control.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: boundaries, broadcast, kids, parenting

What You Need to Be a Happier Mom

A lot of moms say they feel overwhelmed and stressed. Is it any wonder? They’re struggling under the burden of unrealistic expectations – some self-imposed, and some imposed by the culture.

In both cases, the “ideal” mom is often portrayed as a woman who is not only a full-time mom at home, but a fulltime employee outside the home. In her free time, she’s a Girl Scout troop leader, bakes treats from scratch for her kids, and still has time to accompany her children on every school field trip.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, kids, mom, parenting

Watch: Highlights from Alive from New York!

With nearly 20,000 people jammed into New York City’s Times Square, this past Saturday’s historic “Alive from New York” ultrasound event exceeded all expectations.

Some of you may have been there. Many others may have watched.

As an event, it had it all: beautiful and inspirational music from Christian recording artists Francesca Battistelli and Phil King, passionate and compelling speeches from evangelist Alveda King, former NFL star Benjamin Watson, actress Ashley Bratcher, pro-life stalwarts Marjorie Dannenfelser and Christina Bennett, and abortion survivors Melissa Ohden, Josiah Presley and Claire Culwell – and the live 4D ultrasound of former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson’s baby.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: abortion, faith, New York, pro-life

Embracing the Unique Aspects of Male and Female

Remember the name Ivan Pavlov? He was the Nobel Prize-winning physiologist, best known for his experiments involving ringing bells and salivating dogs. It may not surprise you to learn that he conducted other scientific tests as well. One in particular, I believe, illustrates a significant challenge facing our culture.

The project went like this: Pavlov trained dogs to distinguish between circles and ovals. When they pointed their nose at a circle, they received a reward. When they selected an oval, they suffered a penalty.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, female, genders, male

Praying and Stepping Out in Faith

Have you ever felt discouraged because God doesn’t seem to be answering your prayers?

Pastor Mark Batterson has. He was diagnosed with asthma at age 3 and suffered life-threatening attacks for years. At age thirteen, he was rushed to the hospital and spent days in intensive care. Both he and his parents feared that he might soon take his last breath.

For 40 years, Mark never went anywhere without his inhaler and used it almost every day.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, prayer