Daly Focus Blog
When the movie Straight Outta Compton debuted at the top of the box almost a decade ago, our media discernment ministry, Plugged In, gave the film a half “plug” (out of five) for family friendliness in its review.
It’s no wonder. Life in Compton, California is anything but family-friendly. I should know – I lived in Compton for part of my childhood. When I was only 8 years old, I was in my bedroom when a murder took place just 10 feet from the window.
When Easter comes around every year, many people think of chocolate, decorative eggs and rabbits carrying baskets. As Christians, we know there’s a lot more to the story. Jesus’ triumphal parade. His last supper with His disciples. His brutal death on the cross. His bodily resurrection.
The events surrounding the Easter story can evoke a complicated mix of emotions – sadness and joy, anger and gratitude, fear and trust, mature themes that can be challenging for adults to process.
I came home from work about a year after my wife Jean and I got married and found her in the bathroom crying. I was worried she was having second thoughts about our relationship, but when I asked her what was wrong, she said, “I flushed my wedding ring down the toilet.” Back then, she kept her jewelry in a basket behind the toilet, and she’d hit the flusher and the basket at the same time.
When Trey and Lea Morgan started dating, they’d grab fast food, a blanket and talk for hours. Then, after they each went home, they’d call each other and talk some more. Now, years into their marriage, they wonder what they could have possibly talked about for so long.
Although their quantity of conversation has changed, they’ve always maintained quality. They understand that strong marriages are no accident; they’re cultivated.
Trey and Lea Morgan have been involved in marriage ministry and coaching for over 30 years and are co-hosts of the Stronger Marriage with Trey and Lea Morgan podcast.
April Fool’s Day is about catching people off-guard with surprises they never see coming. Like the prank pulled on residents of Sitka, Alaska on April 1, 1974. People woke up that morning to black smoke rising from the crater of Mt. Edgecumbe, a volcano just a few miles away that hadn’t erupted in nearly 800 years.
That morning, 911 was flooded with so many calls that the Coast Guard sent a helicopter to investigate. The source of the trouble, it turns out, was not lava or hot ash.
According to Dr. Meg Meeker, boys today grow up in a world that is often at odds with their natural instincts to be curious and to explore. They’re taught to be cooperative and passive, to stay safe and avoid risks. What’s more, parents don’t always recognize how dangerous social media, popular entertainment, and marathon gaming can be for boys. Overconsumption can deaden their sensibilities and disconnect them from human interaction.
Dr. Meeker bases her expertise in years of clinical experience as a pediatrician, relevant scientific data, common sense, and her Christian faith.
God’s light often shines the brightest when circumstances are at their darkest and most bleak.
Which makes today’s world an opportunity for Christians to be salt and light by recommitting to studying God’s Word and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us into the lives of others – our families, our neighborhoods, our churches, and our communities. We are ambassadors for Christ, called to be prepared to “give a reason for the hope that is in us” (1 Peter 3:15).
Author Gary Thomas thought he had a good marriage. Then God reminded him of the pledge he made to his wife at their wedding: “I promise to love and cherish you until death do us part.” Thirty-six years later, Gary realized that he hadn’t thought of the word “cherish” in terms of his marriage since the day he spoke the vows.
Determined to change course, Gary set out to understand what it really meant to cherish his wife.
Rich Griffith is a single Dad of three teenage sons, all of whom he adopted. He soon realized that despite ministering to teenagers for many years, he didn’t know how to disciple his children as a parent. Neither do a lot of parents.
And that is why Rich likes to help parents teach their children how to engage their world by discerning which voices in their lives are helpful and harmful. The wisdom for determining whether or not a voice is worth listening to is discovered through what he calls the “Three Ts”:
Time.
There are a lot of great dads out there, but many men are disengaged from their boys. They don’t see masculinity as a quality they offer to their sons. They see it as something boys figure out on their own.
That was my story. I didn’t have a father to teach me how to be a man. I had to figure it out by myself. But that journey wasn’t easy, and it’s why I can say from experience that leaving a boy in the hands of “trial-and-error” is not ideal.
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.
