Daly Focus Blog
Does this visual remind you of your parenting style?
You probably recognize that formula from a math class somewhere in your past. It guarantees that every time you add A and B together, you get C. So 2 + 2 always equals 4, and 1 + 5 always gives you 6. Every time. It’s simple. It’s reliable. It’s predictable.
That certainty is why formulas are the go-to parenting method for so many moms and dads.
The miraculous, hope-filled story of Easter might have been closer to a Shakespearean tragedy if God had left it up to the men.
Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and hanged himself. Peter denied Jesus three times. Thomas doubted the Resurrection. And all of the disciples hid fearfully behind locked doors for three days. And when they were told that Jesus had risen, the message “seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe it” (Luke 24:11, ESV).
Parenting can be messy.
From your children’s earliest days, you set boundaries, you discipline, you pour your life into your kids and trust that they’ll be drawn to your Christian faith and embrace it as their own. But one night, years later, your head hits the pillow, and you stare up at the ceiling through the darkness, distraught and wondering, “Where did we go wrong? We raised our kids in church. We prayed with them. We read the Bible to them.
Thanks to Vice President Mike and Mrs. Karen Pence, it seems like everybody’s talking about boundaries in marriage right now – and as a husband-and-wife team that equips couples to strengthen their marriages, we couldn’t be happier.
This national conversation started after a Washington Post profile of Karen Pence that highlighted how close and loving her marriage to the vice president is – and also included this line:
“In 2002, Mike Pence told the Hill that he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either.”
That sentence has sparked a lot of controversy from critics who think the practice is sexist, outdated, or might hinder a professional woman’s career.
“You may ask, ‘Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why isn’t he landing en force, invading it?’ Well, Christians think He’s going to land in force. We don’t know when, but we can guess why. He’s delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Profound truth like that is why C.S.
Monday I shared how the staff celebrated Focus on the Family’s 40th anniversary with a time of prayer and singing during our usual Monday morning stand-up meeting.
But I didn’t tell you the whole story.
Turns out, a few of us wanted to commemorate the milestone – and surprise the staff – in a very 1977 sort of way.
And what’s more 1977 than disco?
That’s right. Our preparation for Monday’s standup meeting included a disco ball, costumes… and a short, choreographed number to “Stayin’ Alive” for Focus on the Family Daily Broadcast co-host John Fuller and me.
There’s probably no more important word to define marriage than this one: love. But what is love, really? Is it simply an emotion we feel, or is it something deeper?
In some ways, you can’t fault most of us in the English-speaking world for being confused. The word love has itself become something of a generic term in American culture. The richness of its meaning has been lost.
Ancient Greek had four different words for love, each of them conveying a very particular nuance.
Exactly 40 years ago yesterday, on March 26, 1977, the first Focus on the Family broadcast aired – and a global, Christian family-help ministry was born.
The entire Focus staff gathered this morning to commemorate this milestone anniversary and celebrate God’s goodness over the years. Our time of reminiscing and worship ended with a rousing, heartfelt rendition of “Great is Thy Faithfulness” – because when we look back on these 40 years, God’s faithfulness is precisely what we see.
Over the course of the last seven years, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Tim Keller many times. The senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Tim is one of our most popular broadcast guests.
He’s also become a good friend.
A quiet, cerebral, steely man of sound doctrine and strong conviction, Dr. Keller has been referred to as the C.S. Lewis of our time, and with good reason. A gifted teacher and preacher, whether in print or speaking from the pulpit, he knows how to engage both the head and the heart.
Life Magazine once published a list of the “Most Important Events of the Millennium.” Among the top ten were the discovery of germ theory, the Holocaust, and the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Number one on that list was the Gutenberg Bible printed in the 1450s and the first book to be mass produced. According to Life Magazine, no other event in the past 1,000 years has changed the world as dramatically as the Bible becoming available to the common person.
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.
