Daly Focus Blog
What strategies are most effective for raising kids with good character?
We get that question a lot here at Focus on the Family. Our answer is that there is no one size fits all, but one thing is required: intentionality. Setting our families on “auto pilot” and hoping everything turns out okay is not a fruitful parenting approach.
Every Christian parent wants happy and healthy kids who love the Lord and who have a good relationship with their mom and dad.
At what age do children become adults, 16, 18, 21? Answers among parents likely vary widely.
Psychologist, author, and expert in adolescent and family relationships, Dr. Ken Wilgus, says adulthood isn’t a moment in time as much as a process of growth that he calls “Progressive Emancipation,” which he describes as “marshaling an orderly retreat out of your teenagers’ lives.” In other words, parents should deliberately work their way out of their parental responsibilities by the time their child leaves home.
One of the greatest challenges a parent can face is an adult child who rejects the values they were taught growing up. It’s tough to watch a child turn away from honesty, kindness and good character in favor of lies, selfishness and unwise choices. You may even wonder where you went wrong as a parent. Let me encourage you with a few ideas:
The first is to recognize that your child’s decisions are not your fault, at least not entirely.
Many Christians say they don’t reach out to strangers in the name of Jesus because they don’t know how to offer that kind of hospitality.
Author Annie McCune can show you how. She says, “Throughout the course of my life, I have had the privilege of loving many strangers through opening the door to my home and my heart. In return, I have been radically loved when I was a stranger in need of hospitality.”
Hospitality is about learning to love strangers with God’s love and grace.
Have you ever gotten your car stuck, in mud, or like those of us in Colorado, snow? You rock your car back and forth to get traction, but your tires spin, and you get nowhere.
Husbands and wives can get stuck like that. In anger, so you’re always battling each other. Or busyness, so you never have the time or energy to connect. Or maybe like my guests on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, Justin and Trisha Davis, you’re stuck in the saddest rut of all: apathy – you’ve given up and stopped fighting for your marriage.
Dr. Gary Chapman wrote the book on love. Literally. He’s the author of the best-selling classic The Five Love Languages. But even Dr. Chapman had to learn how to love his wife well. Early on in their marriage, he and his wife Karolyn struggled to navigate their differences. They had such a tough time that at one point they both wondered if they had married the wrong person.
My wife Jean and I experienced something similar.
The stress of daily life takes a toll on even the happiest couples – which is why marriage and family counselor Dr. Randy Schroeder says seeking marital happiness is unrealistic. A better approach is to pursue consistent marital satisfaction. How? Good habits.
Dr. Schroeder offers four “daily essentials” for creating good habits in your marriage:
“Goodbye, I love you.” Whoever leaves the house first should initiate this.
“Goodnight, I love you.” Whoever goes to bed first should initiate this.
A common question we get here at Focus on the Family is from parents who ask how to raise children who embrace the Christian faith. Many moms and dads feel unqualified to lead their children along their journey of faith.
The challenges are real. Many teens and preteens consume hours of digital media every day, which unwittingly shapes their view of God, the world, and themselves according to the values of people they don’t even know.
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?” (Luke 14:34).
The dominoes of truth and morality are falling at an alarming speed in our culture. Every day there seems to be another attack upon Christian values and religious freedom. We shouldn’t be surprised. For one thing, Jesus warned us that it would be this way (Matt. 10:22). Also, history tells us that as a culture slides into moral decline, its people turn against the principles upon which that culture is built.
President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. comes in the wake of the capital city’s horrific spike in crime.
Despite claims to the contrary, the 68 square miles on the Potomac River bordering Maryland and Virginia hasn’t been a safe place to be for a long time. Anyone who has been there recently can attest to the area’s problems. When it comes to what he sees outside the White House windows and when driving by in his motorcade, President Trump didn’t mince his words.
“[Washington, D.C.] has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people, and we’re not going to let it happen anymore,” declared Mr.
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.
