Daly Focus Blog
Do you know what it’s like to struggle with money?
Stupid question, right? Most of us know what it’s like for the water heater to break or the car to break down and not have any money for repairs.
There’s also a trail of unfulfilled “what ifs” behind us. What if we had the money to start a college fund for our kids, to start a business, to serve other people … or, yes, to fix the water heater and the car?
How to spiritually connect with your spouse may be one of the most misunderstood concepts in marriage.
Couples tend to think in terms of spiritual activities they ought to dotogether: Read their Bible, pray, go to church together, memorize Scripture.
Certainly, those are important spiritual disciplines, and they fit the personality of a lot of people especially well. Some couples are so structured they treat devotions like mini-church. They gather together each night, read verses from the Bible, share their thoughts, and close in prayer for one another.
By now you’ve likely heard of Tony Bennett. No, not the legendary 92-year-old singer – the 49-year-old head coach of the NCAA National Championship basketball team from the University of Virginia.
A former star college player in his own right who also played three seasons in the NBA, Tony Bennett shepherded his team of collegians to a national championship a year after having suffered an embarrassing loss in the first round of the tournament.
The ignominious defeat in 2018 – the only time a # 1 seed has lost to a # 16 seed – could have easily demoralized Bennett and his squad.
The new biography on First Lady Barbara Bush is in the news, and it’s a timely moment to remember what Mrs. Bush considered her most important job: motherhood.
Today, Focus on the Family is excited to release a book by Linda Weber called The Eternal Mark of a Mom. In it, she defends the value of motherhood while urging women to embrace the value and power of their role.
In this excerpt, Linda speaks to how Barbara Bush felt about her greatest calling in life:
Over the years, I’ve received many letters from mothers who had gained a new perspective about the worth of being a mom, telling me of a fulfillment they hadn’t thought possible.
You’d think the United States Senate would consider the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act a “no-brainer.” The bill would have guaranteed medical care for children born alive after an attempted abortion. Of the 100 US Senators, the measure needed 60 votes to pass.
It received 53.
Nearly half of the United States Senate voted to allow infanticide – the killing of infant children.
A preponderance of abortion supporters reason that the legislation isn’t necessary. “The problem doesn’t exist,” they say.
It’s been said it’s “easier to build a boy than to mend a man.”
I agree.
A startling number of boys today are alone, left to figure out for themselves what it means to be a man. They don’t have a father in the home who will engage them.
Oh, dad may be there. But he isn’t present.
There are a lot of great dads out there, but too many men are disengaged. They don’t see manhood as a quality for them to intentionally bestow upon their son.
Do you have a daughter who’s a “crushaholic”? That term describes a young lady who is constantly seeking affirmation from boys.
I don’t have daughters myself, but I do have two boys Trent and Troy, so Jean and I are seeing the upheaval of the teen years up close. The physical, mental, and emotional changes can be intense.
Did I mention the emotional changes?
They can be especially pronounced in girls who tend to be emotional creatures by nature, more so than boys.
Monday’s headlines were full of good news from the box office:
Unplanned, the powerful abortion-themed movie featuring Focus author and former Planned Parenthood director, Abby Johnson, grossed $6.1 million – more than doubling expectations. It was the second-largest launch for the Christian filmmaker Pure Flix, tracking only behind their hit, God’s Not Dead 2 ($7.6 million).
Industry experts were shocked at the NEW film’s popularity. In response to its strong opening weekend, an additional 700 theaters will now be showing the film.
“I struggle with food.”
That statement resonates with millions of men and women. Maintaining a healthy relationship with food can be difficult for physiological, mental and spiritual reasons.
God designed food for function and for pleasure. Hunger compels us to eat, which sustains our lives, but God also created us with the ability to enjoy flavors, textures, and the experience of eating itself (Ecclesiastes 3:13).
The trouble is, that beautiful gift can get twisted. Research is confirming that certain foods and additives can have the same addictive effect as drugs, which causes us to continue to feel hungry even though we’ve already eaten.
Abby Johnson was an abortion clinic director for Planned Parenthood for eight years. She considered herself a Christian and believed she was helping women. But her heart was conflicted. As she described it, “I facilitated abortions on Saturday, and sat in a pew on Sunday.”
She was able to rationalize that dichotomy, in part, through Planned Parenthood’s skewed perspective. They never talk about the baby. Their focus is, and always has been, the woman. In fact, Abby was instructed never to refer to the baby at all.
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.
