Daly Focus Blog
Is your family looking forward to spring break?
The Daly family is eager for a change of pace to rest and play. While we had a pretty mild winter here in Colorado, the promise of spring and its warmer weather and extended hours of sunshine is always welcomed this time of year.
If you’re a parent, though, you might be asking yourself how to help your children fill those longer days. In the Daly home, we enjoy spending time outdoors and taking in the beautiful Colorado scenery.
Proverbs 31 is the quintessential description of a wise, virtuous woman. She’s God-fearing and lives her life with purpose, diligence, and grace.
But there’s another woman in Proverbs who doesn’t get quite as much attention. She’s found in chapter seven.
In contrast to the Proverbs 31 woman, the Proverbs 7 woman is the prototypical “wild thing.” She’s rowdy and has lost her moorings, deciding she’s going to make her own decisions about how to live her life, about her sexuality, and about how to interact with men.
As Americans, we’ve become all too familiar with horrific references in the news to the Islamic State, otherwise known as ISIS or ISIL. This jihadist militant group based in the Middle East has made clear its intentions to terrorize, kill and destroy anyone who doesn’t adhere to the tenets of Islamic fundamentalism.
To put it bluntly, they seek to dominate the world and will not stop until (according to their magazine) the “Blessed flag [of their organization] covers all eastern and western extents of the Earth, filling the world with the truth and justice of Islam and putting an end to the falsehood and tyranny of jahiliyyah [state of ignorance], even if America and its coalition despise such.”
Christians remain a key target of ISIS.
Quick, name someone, dead or alive, you’d like to have dinner with.
Do you have the name of that person in your mind?
Who is it?
Harriet Tubman? Bill Gates? The Apostle Paul?
Some kids were also asked who they would most like to have dinner with … Watch the video to learn what they answered:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wfbY3i4FY0
Parents are the most important and influential people to their children. I hope this video both encouraged you in your job of raising your kids and inspired you to make time for shared meals.
Just a few wayward sparks.
That’s all it takes for a fire to burn through an entire city, as it did in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, one of the largest disasters in American history.
In popular accounts from the time, Catherine O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern in a humble barn on DeKoven Street. What started as a small fire quickly grew into an inferno that destroyed miles of homes and razed Chicago’s business district.
The Bible is silent on most of Jesus’ childhood. Except for a brief glimpse of Him at age 12, Scripture shows Jesus as a divine baby born under supernatural circumstances … and then as a man aware of His divinity carrying out a miracle-filled ministry on Earth.
But what about those years in between?
There’s a movie that debuts this weekend that explores the period of Jesus’ life where He “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).
We know which road Robert Frost took in his famous poem, “The Road Not Taken.”
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.
But the choices we face in real life don’t seem nearly so romantic or easy. In fact, important decisions are often the most anxiety- and fear-producing experiences in life.
Fortunately, we have our faith in Christ, right? Well, that ought to give us more confidence, but seeking God’s will can sometimes intensify the pressure even more.
My friend Gary Thomas Smalley died last night. He was surrounded by his family, including his son and my Focus colleague, Greg, who had just returned hours earlier from a speaking engagement about marriage.
How fitting, I thought, that on the very day Gary was to receive his eternal reward, his son was picking up where his father had left off, loving and ministering to Christian couples by helping to enrich their marital relationships.
It’s impossible to sum up 75 years’ worth of living into a few words, but let me tell you just a little bit about the man I knew and loved – and the author and personality so many of you appreciated from afar.
Here’s an important parenting question:
What if your hands were empty, but I asked you to give me one of the apples you were holding?
That’s not a trick question, a riddle, or some odd math problem from your junior high days. It’s a simple question that makes an equally simple point.
We can’t give away something we don’t have.
How does that concept relate to parenting? In this way: We can’t parent our children with God’s grace if we haven’t embraced it ourselves.
Do your children have smartphones?
My boys, ages 15 and 13, don’t. Jean and I have considered getting the boys simple flip phones for emergencies, but yet … we hesitate opening that door.
Beyond the dangers that come with smartphones, we recognize how easy it can be to become addicted to them. Americans now spend an average of 4.7 hours a day on their phones. We sleep with them on our nightstand and carry them in our pockets.
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.
