Daly Focus Blog
I’d say the most popular word in the average parent’s vocabulary would have to be “no.”
To be fair, it’s an important word for moms and dads. Used properly, it creates healthy boundaries for children.
But I think sometimes we over-do our “no’s,” too. We can be a little too protective. Remember Dory, the Pacific blue tang with short-term memory loss from the animated hit “Finding Nemo”? She reminded Marlin, the dad of mis-adventurous Nemo, “You can’t never let anything happen to him.
American patriotism hits a high point at about this time every year. Independence Day celebrations remind us of our nation’s rich history of liberty.
But we’re also confronted with some very dark chapters that can tarnish the national pride we feel.
That paradox brings to mind an important question: “Should we love our country?”
Author Eric Metaxas says a lot of people today interpret love for America as nationalistic chest beating. Our pride is really nothing more than tribalism, they say.
What does hiking a mountain have in common with parenting? As it turns out, a lot.
Adventurers who explore the Colorado Rocky Mountains can be in the wild for extended periods of time. That can be risky if the weather unexpectedly deteriorates. Without warning, hikers can face conditions that change from one extreme to the other, and their well-thought out plans can become uncertain at best, requiring constant course corrections.
Raising children can be an equally daunting challenge.
Music has the power to transport you back in time, doesn’t it?
Listen to an old song, and all the emotions come flooding back … it’s almost like you’re in your childhood home again, or studying for college finals in your dorm, or falling in love with your spouse all over again.
Fast-forward to today. I hope most of us are enjoying the great things about summer – the barbecues, road trips, and visits to the beach or mountains.
I love the way Ray Vander Laan illustrates the expanding influence of God’s kingdom when we Christians live in faithful obedience to Christ. He says every time we obey our King – in big or little things, whether in our families or throughout our communities – we extend His kingdom by a square inch.
That’s the example Jesus lived out before us, and one which He asks us to follow. He extended God’s kingdom by doing the will of His Father, by loving His neighbor, by loving His enemy, by touching the unclean, and by caring for sinners.
True love can stand the tests of time and illness.
Meet Bill and Glad Forward, a couple you won’t soon forget. Glad has advanced Alzheimer’s, and the love Bill shows to his precious bride of 50 years is beautiful. “I count it a great privilege to care for this woman I’ve loved all these years,” Bill explains in this touching video. “She has done so much for me over these years. Now she can’t, but I can.”
It’s a love so sincere and so humble it’s almost impossible to watch without tearing up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzYVQxZDlAs
Today’s broadcast highlights another such love story where a husband cares for his wife with Alzheimer’s.
Friends: This is the statement we sent out to the media today. Please continue to pray for our country. -JD
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Focus on the Family Responds to SCOTUS’ Hellerstedt Decision
“The Supreme Court rejected… commonsense regulations prompted by ghastly history of Kermit Gosnell’s abortion activities. Making all surgery as safe as possible for women is common sense and pro-woman.”
Colorado Springs, Colo. – Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family, released the following statement today in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Whole Woman’s Health v.
We’ve been hearing more about “boomerang kids” lately, young adults who, due to a bad economy, dearth of jobs, or for a variety of others reasons, move back home with mom and dad after a season of independence.
Boomerang kids are part of a rapidly growing trend. According to an NBC News article, “A Pew Research Center analysis released earlier this month found that 40 percent of 18- to 31-year-olds with a high school degree or less, and 43 percent of those with some college education, were living at their parents’ home in 2012.” Another study shows that 85 percent of college grads move back in after school is over.
The landscape of marriage in our country has experienced seismic shifts in recent decades.
In the 1970s, 89 percent of babies were born to a married couple. Today, that number is around 60 percent. And in 1960, about 72 percent of adults were married. That has now dropped to about 50 percent.
Culture has changed, and views about marriage reflect those changes. It should come as no surprise, then, that marriage is largely seen through a consumer-driven mindset.
This Friday my family and I will travel to Zambia to participate in Camp Life, a week-long camp for orphaned and vulnerable children in the southern African country.
The need is overwhelming. So many adults have died from HIV/AIDS that half of the country’s 15 million people are under the age of 16. Of the 6.5 million children in Zambia, more than 1 million of them are orphans.
Zambia has the highest per capita orphan rate in the world.
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.
