Daly Focus Blog
Do dads have to be perfect?
The answer to that question seems obvious: No.
But what if the answer is yes?
Nobody’s perfect, of course. We all fall short in word, thought, and deed every day. That’s why we need God’s grace.
But hold on. Even if the goal isn’t literal perfection, can’t every dad improve somewhere? This isn’t condemnation, this is a call for men to rise up and thrive as fathers. After all, being a dad is one of the most important jobs a man will ever have.
We applaud today’s action by the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in keeping this Administration’s pledge to American taxpayers that no funds would go directly, or indirectly, to support abortion.
HHS’s announcement that it will be bringing back a Reagan-era regulation dealing with family planning funds and abortion responds to the cry of millions of Americans who want their government to support life, not death. Six in ten Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion.
Some of the best influence on my boys’ future marriages takes place in our kitchen. That’s where Jean, I, and our sons gather to prepare the evening meal and catch up on our day.
Okay, Jean does most of the cooking, but the rest of us help out where we can. Most importantly, we’re all together. We talk about life. We talk about goals. We talk about success and failure. We laugh a lot. We’re doing more than fixing and eating dinner – we’re immersing our boys in relationship.
One of the most powerful forces God created for humanity exists in the realm of love, sex, and romance. The potential for both pleasure and blessing is virtually immeasurable. So is the potential for destruction.
As a group, Millennials and younger generations don’t tend to believe that. A significant percentage see sex as a purely physical experience. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. From an evolutionary standpoint, there isn’t anything sacred about sex. If there is no God, then sex is strictly biological.
When’s the last time you read a news story with a happy ending?
After all, as a general rule of thumb, it’s the noise that makes news.
It’s human nature.
Maybe it’s because bad news makes us feel better about ourselves. Our lives could be worse – just look at that sad and sordid story.
But then there’s Heard County High School in Franklin, Georgia, population 993.
In a nod to tradition, seniors in the high school there regularly try and pull off a prank this time of year.
It wasn’t the first time that Karis Kimmel Murray was confronted with how to discipline her young daughter, Riley, properly, but it was one of the more memorable.
At the end of a shopping trip at Walmart, Karis stopped by the shoe aisle for a new pair of flip-flops. Her daughter decided she’d sat patiently in the cart long enough. Karis allowed Riley down, but Riley didn’t just want out of the cart, she wanted out of the store … and Karis stood between her and that goal.
Week ending May 8, 2018
The Marriage Builder (by Larry Crabb)
The Language of Love (by Gary Smalley & John Trent)
A Lifelong Love (by Gary Thomas)
All the Places to Go . . . How Will You Know? (by John Ortberg)
Fully Alive (by Larry Crabb)
Fire Road (by Kim Phuc Thi)
The Focus on the Family Guide to Talking with Your Kids about Sex (by J. Thomas Fitch)
Kingdom Marriage (by Tony Evans)
The Power of Prayer and Fasting (by Ronnie Floyd)
Courage for Life (by Ann White)
Sacred Marriage (by Gary L.
Mom, could you use some practical ways to place God at the center of your relationship with your children? Do you have the right identity balance between “mom” and “me”?
In answer to those questions and others like them, author Brooke McGlothlin has this suggestion for moms: STOP.
Submit your thoughts to Christ.
Tell yourself the truth.
Open your eyes to understanding
Persist in prayer
Moms can be passionate about creating the ideal childhood for their kids.
“Honey, does life get any better than this?”
That’s what Carol Kent asked her husband one October night as they strolled hand-in-hand along the St. Clair River, watching the beauty of the changing seasons. She believed they were entering a time of change themselves.
She was right about that … but not in the way she had hoped. Little did she know that they were about to face the darkest chapter their family had ever encountered.
It’s been over 46 years since my mother slipped from this life into the next.
I was just 9 years old when she died, and her death disoriented me in ways big and small. In a very practical way, her passing marked the abrupt end of my childhood. Already reeling from the abandonment of my father at 5, it came at the worst possible time, though it’s never a good time for a child to lose a parent.
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.
