Daly Focus Blog
After eight years of an administration that was friendly to abortion in any and every instance, Congress and the Trump Administration have taken steps to pull back pro-abortion policies on a couple of fronts – and that’s good news.
Here are the details.
Last week, the U.S. Senate followed the House of Representatives in repealing an Obama-era rule that banned states from denying federal funds to groups that commit abortions, including Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
As author and speaker Lee Strobel tells it, someone once came between him and his wife, Leslie, that almost destroyed their marriage. It wasn’t a co-worker or an old boyfriend.
It was Jesus Christ.
Leslie had become a Christian. Lee remained a staunch atheist.
Their worldviews were diametrically opposed to one another. The friction that created is why God gave us the sort of wisdom found in 2 Corinthians 6:14, which says, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.”
Yokes were heavy wooden implements that were fitted over the necks of two animals, so they could pull a plow together.
Ask a 20-something a few generations back what their religious affiliation was, and chances were the answer would fall within predictable lines: Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Jewish, for example.
Ask the same question of today’s young adults, otherwise known as “Millennials,” and you might hear something new.
“I’m spiritual,” they might say, or “I believe in a higher power, but I’m not religious.”
That’s because Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) are more comfortable than any other generation in identifying their religious affiliation as “none of the above.”
In fact, about 35 percent of adult Millennials are religiously unaffiliated, according to Pew Research Center.
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.
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.
