Daly Focus Blog
Making big decisions can be frightening for teenagers. They get overwhelmed thinking about buying a car, deciding on a college, choosing a career, and even eventually getting married. We want to help them in these big decisions, but we don’t always know how.
I’ve got good news for you. John Ortberg is our guest, and he has some great advice for parents who are trying to help their teenagers decide their next steps.
His ideas resonate with me.
Today is the 43rd anniversary of the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Stories from the Vietnam war have been told for decades, from the soldiers who fought it to the victims caught in the crossfire. Few of those stories are as inspirational as that of Kim Phuc Phan Thi.
You remember her as “the napalm girl,” the central figure in the iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning photo “The Terror of War.” The photo portrays a young girl running naked down the road, her skin on fire from a napalm attack.
The plight of Alfie Evans, the 23-month-old boy from Liverpool, England who’s been diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease and blocked by court-order from leaving the country for alternative treatment, is a tragedy on many levels.
Sadly, it’s also a microcosm of the evolving and expanding death culture gripping modern-day society.
Alfie was taken off life support earlier this week, a move dictated by Great Britain’s Supreme Court. They determined further treatment would be “unkind” and “futile.”
Little Alfie’s parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, vehemently disagree, and have been petitioning the courts to simply let them take their child to Italy for treatment.
Just under a year since Brio relaunched, the magazine was honored with the Evangelical Press Association’s highest award in the “Youth” category. Focus on the Family’s publication for teen girls received an Award of Excellence at the EPA’s annual convention earlier this month.
I thought my friend and colleague, Bob DeMoss, summed it up well:
“We had high expectations for how well Brio would be received by teen girls, but the response in our first year far exceeded what we could have imagined.
Ann and Mike’s counselor told them: “I’ve never seen a marriage in as big a mess as yours that’s ever made it.”
How had things gotten so bad? They had ignored the impact that stress, unforeseen hardships, and frustration with each other had made on their relationship. Over time, the cracks between them had grown wider and wider, to the point that even their counselor held out little hope for reconciliation.
Truth be told, no one knew their marriage was so far gone.
According to Jesse Ball, a writer in the latest issue of GQ Magazine, the Bible is an overrated and boring book. In fact, the 39-year-old novelist and poet went on to characterize the Old and New Testaments as “foolish,” “repetitive” and “self-contradictory,” among other things.
Understandably, Jesse Ball’s assertions have stirred up significant controversy. But this isn’t the first time that the Chicago-based writer has made curious, perplexing and outlandish pronouncements. For example, just last year he suggested that every American should be put in a maximum security prison once every ten years – for up to ninety days at a time.
Comedian Ken Davis was 65 when he told his audience, “These are some of the best years of my life.”
He wasn’t joking.
He’d been a Christian for years, but it wasn’t until he was older that he’d begun living the truth of Philippians 3:10, where Paul says that he desired “to know Christ and the power of His resurrection.” Christians will experience the fullness of Christ after we die, of course, but Paul reminds us that we can also know the power of God’s resurrection in this life!
Solo parenting is one of the toughest jobs in the world.
I’ve seen firsthand just how tough. I was from a single-parent home. After my parents divorced, my mom took care of five kids. Jean and I have also worked with a young man who lost his wife and has been struggling to raise his kids. It’s been eye-opening to see the world through his eyes as closely as we have over the last few months.
I wonder if you’ve ever thought of raising your children as an act of worship to the Lord.
Author Gary Thomas calls that “sacred parenting.” That term isn’t meant to drum up imagery of a mom and dad who have “arrived” spiritually and emotionally and are pulling their kids up to their level of perfection. It’s more the idea that we’re guiding our children along the same journey that we’re on. We’re all experiencing victory and stumbling from time to time, all the while seeking forgiveness, redemption, and growth in God’s grace.
Several weeks ago, I had the privilege of being in Washington, D.C., to talk with media and government leaders about the importance of the family in the culture.
Two of my meetings were with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from Kentucky and Senator James Lankford from Oklahoma. They both shared perspectives about faith and family that I believe Focus on the Family’s listeners will want to hear. We’re airing those conversations on our broadcast “Protecting Life and Family Values in the Senate.”
Our discussions weren’t specifically political, but, still, that is the Senators’ sphere of influence.
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.
