Jim Daly

Practical Help for Adoptive Parents

If I handed a baby to you, the infant would likely snuggle face first into your shoulder for comfort.

That’s not how it was with my colleague John Fuller’s youngest son. They adopted him when he was nine months old. Even as a baby, he would physically turn away when he was held. He’d accept chest-to-chest and back-to-chest snuggles, but never face-to-face.

That’s how deep attachment issues in adopted children can run. Many children who have lost their parents in some fashion suffer from a sense of rejection and lack of emotional connection that reaches to their soul.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: adoption, broadcast, family

On the Death of G. Harvey

Gerald Harvey Jones, a former industrial arts teacher who would go on to become one of America’s most highly regarded painters by creating masterpieces that hearkened back to simpler times when virtues such as faith, courage, patriotism, hard work, and compassion were revered, has died. He was 84.

“G. Harvey,” as he was known to his fans and collectors, was a friend of mine, as he was to many around Focus on the Family. A man of incredible generosity, Gerald began a tradition in 1987 of commissioning a yearly painting for the ministry, which we were then able to make available to our friends.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: events, faith

This is What Happens When You Affirm Your Husband

Marital relationship studies generally examine the factors that contribute to the downfall of a marriage. One revolutionary study took an opposite approach. It followed 373 happy, successful couples for 22 years and looked at what went right.

One of the pivotal conclusions the study reached was that couples enjoyed higher marital satisfaction when wives affirmed their husbands. That’s a simple enough premise, but it can be surprisingly difficult for many women to do.

Christian women desire to be good wives and desire to connect with their husbands.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage, wife

Escaping the Prison of Your Past

“Why should I focus on my past? It’s over. I can’t change anything about it.”

Answer: If your past still affects your present, it’s not really in the past.

Wounds from our past can imprison us within ourselves. Satan is a master at dredging up old hurts and using them against us. Sinful and dysfunctional behavior today is often in reaction to the pain that litters our yesterdays.

Guilt, shame, bitterness, resentment, and anger are a long, slow path to destruction.

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

What’s the Best Family Dog?

Several years ago, I asked whether or not you thought pets went to Heaven.

The response was robust!

Personally, I’ve always appreciated how Dr. Billy Graham responded to that question:

“God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he’ll be there.”

But today I thought I’d ask a less eternally minded question, but a practical one nonetheless:

What’s the best family dog?

According to the American Kennel Club, here are the ten best:

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: family

Jon Crist Video: Monday Morning Press Conference

The late Dr. Adrian Rogers once said that if you can learn to laugh at yourself you’ll never run out of things to laugh at!

In that spirit, the following video from the talented comedian Jon Crist is for all my pastor friends out there – or for all of us who love our pastor.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: entertainment, humor

Simple Tools for Raising Great Kids

What can you do tonight to deepen your relationship with your children and empower them to develop strong character?

Simply this: in a genuine way that fits you and your child, make an effort to connect. It doesn’t have to be expensive, complicated, or excessively time-consuming. Even the simplest gesture of love, affection, and physical touch can strengthen the relationship between a parent and a child.

That advice comes from clinical child psychologist, Dr. Todd Cartmell, my guest on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Raising Kids of Character.” He’ll be providing equally helpful answers to questions that many parents ask:

How do I get my children to listen to me?

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, family, parenting

In Honor of Veterans Day

John Murphy was on a routine training jump at Fort Bragg when it happened.

He’d just gotten home from a deployment to Afghanistan a couple of months before. John was a proud soldier who was so eager to serve, he dropped out of a full Army ROTC scholarship at Michigan State so he could go straight into active duty.

John grew up with godly parents who loved the Lord and who loved him. But he was a nominal Christian at best.

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

Jim Daly on the Restoration of the Adoption Tax Credit

As one who grew up an orphan, I applaud the leadership of the House of Representatives and the Ways and Means Committee for the action taken today to restore the Adoption Tax Credit (ATC). Our friends and listeners responded to our calls to contact members of Congress and amend the initial proposal. In turn, our elected officials have heeded our plea.

The ATC is a vital tool supporting the life-affirming and life-saving act of adoption. It is a crucial part of a pro-life and pro-family policy agenda.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: adoption, events

Inspiring Boys to Become Men

It’s been said it’s “easier to build a boy than to mend a man.” I agree. So how do we build the next generation of boys into men?

John Wooden was the men’s basketball coach at UCLA for nearly thirty years and is widely recognized as one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game. The dominance of his teams remains unprecedented into the modern era.

Surprisingly, though, his lessons on the court had more to do with being a man than with basketball.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, discipline, kids, relationships