Daly Focus Blog
What does true happiness look like?
Is the concept of happiness even biblical?
I’ll never forget the trip I took to Jakarta, Indonesia, many years ago for a speaking engagement. If you’ve never been there, it has some of the worst smog of any city in the world. My eyes burned, and breathing was difficult after being there for only a short time. The traffic is notorious. Imagine Los Angeles and New York combined and multiply all of that by a factor of 10.
We woke up to shocking news Sunday: a man had entered Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the early morning hours and began shooting.
When the carnage ended, 49 innocents were dead, plus the gunman. An additional 53 were wounded.
We’re now learning about the people who were murdered. There’s Edward Sotomayor, Jr., who loved wearing black hats, and 20-year-old Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, who was among the youngest of the victims.
Kimberly Morris had recently moved to Florida to help her mom and grandmother.
Several years ago, Christianity Today ran an article suggesting I was waving the white flag of surrender on biblical marriage in the culture.
I wasn’t waving a white flag at all. I was simply saying that, if you look at the statistics, a growing number of people under 40 – both Christian and non-Christian – now support same-sex marriage. That entire demographic has emerged as a motivated voter block. I felt then that this cultural viewpoint would win the day in the fight to redefine marriage, and daily news headlines over the past year have only validated my concerns.
I’m on the road today, but wanted to take a minute and share an important piece in National Review by Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and pro-life activist Jill Stanek.
“Abortion Survivors Deserve Our Care” went live on National Review’s website yesterday and it’s already a top trending news story on Facebook – and I’m glad it is.
The piece highlights the horrors faced by babies who survive abortion attempts. In short: they are left to die alone, without medical care.
The latter half of marriage ought to be a couple’s golden years, but quite often it’s dull, disengaged, and lifeless. That might be why a growing number of marriages are ending after 25 years or more.
It’s called the “graying of divorce.”
A recent survey from Bowling Green State University showed that prior to 1990 only 1 in 10 people over the age of 50 divorced. But in the years since 1990, that number has grown to 1 in 4.
I first blogged about marijuana back in January 2014, when Colorado became the first state to open its doors to the commercial sale of recreational marijuana. (Since then, Washington, Alaska, and Oregon have followed suit.)
The changes in drug policy came after years of lobbying and campaigning by a group of committed activists who compared marijuana to alcohol. They also promised voters many benefits for our communities, like more efficient use of law enforcement and judicial resources; increased revenue for our schools and infrastructure; and an improvement to public health and safety.
“Take time to smell the roses.”
It’s a well-worn phrase. But phrases like that endure for generations because their wisdom is so profound. In this case, that simple bit of near poetry reminds us that we tend to miss the richness all around us because we rush so quickly by the flowers of life that we never notice their color, their beauty, or their wondrous fragrance.
Popular guest, Vicki Courtney, told me of one springtime when she was pushing her grandson along in his stroller.
In my role as president of Focus on the Family, I have the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people – from heads of state to ordinary people who’ve achieved extraordinary things.
Over the years, one thing has been affirmed again and again in my mind – people are what life is all about.
Dr. John Maxwell puts it this way: “God is in the people business, so we should be in the people business.”
Here at Focus, we take that directive seriously.
Some time ago I blogged about the “ideal” family size – does it matter how many children a couple has? In it, I took a look how many kids Americans think are ideal and why fertility rates are declining.
A recent article from The Washington Post brought that post to mind because it examines why some couples decide to have larger families.
According to Pew Research Center, 15 percent of all U.S. adults have had four or more children – and, as it might be expected, faith seems to play a role in the size of some families.
When I think of today’s and tomorrow’s radio guest, Sarah Kovac, I’m reminded of a story I once heard about two people strolling along the beach.
One was blind, the other was not.
At the top of a large sand dune, the blind man stopped and breathed in the salt air. “Isn’t this absolutely beautiful?”
“How can you appreciate any of this?” the sighted man asked.
The blind man smiled. “Can’t you feel the warmth of the sun or the sand between your toes?
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.
