Jim Daly

Going Global

Here’s a piece of trivia you may not know.

In March of 1977, Dr. Dobson aired his first radio broadcast called, “Let’s Get Acquainted.” Unlike the daily 30-minute format we syndicate today, Dr. Dobson’s original broadcast was a snappy, 15 minute weekly family advice show. Today, thirty-one years later, the Focus on the Family broadcast is heard in 155 countries with an estimated global audience of 220 million listeners.

What’s more, we broadcast in 26 different languages: Albanian, Arabic, Afrikaans, Armenian, Cantonese, Croatian, English, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Mongolian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu, and Zulu.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast

I Wouldn’t Want it Any Other Way

Two years ago I was speaking in Glendale, Arizona. For Pastor Steve Hubler, one of the guests, that night would forever change his life . . . and the life of his church.

You see, Steve carried with him a burden that taxed his spirit for ten years. Steve has graciously agreed for me to share portions of this letter I just received with you:

I’m one of them, one of the thousands who cannot participate in one of life’s most basic endeavors, the conception of another life.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: adoption, family

Celebrate This Heartbeat

When I wrote my first book, Finding Home, I collaborated with Bob DeMoss. Bob and I have a friendship that goes back some twenty years. Last week, Bob’s world was turned upside-down with a family medical emergency. Yesterday he sent me an email with the details. He’s agreed with my request to share the story with you.

The phone rang unusually early for a Monday morning. My sister Becky called from Philly to inform me that my brother Steve (age 49) woke up feeling numbness throughout his right arm and leg.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, parenting

Birds of a Feather – #1

Here’s one from the travel file.

During the last twenty years I’ve had the opportunity to visit more than seventy countries. One day I’ll tell you about the night I was trapped in a hotel in Moscow on the evening of the Soviet coup to displace Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Complete with tanks and soldiers filling Red Square, it’s one of those horrifying experiences movies are made of.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith

I Don’t Know, But I Still Care

As you probably know, last week a young man wearing black, carrying four guns, opened fire on students at Northern Illinois University. Six are dead. Many more are wounded. Once again, Americans struggle to understand what prompted Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, to snap. Scrambling for answers, the media, as they typically do, turned to the “experts” for their insight. One authority claimed Stephen was “unbalanced” and had stopped taking his medicine . . . another pundit pointed his finger at the role of violent video games in many of these school shootings .

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: events, faith

Divorce Heats Up Global Warming Debate

Let’s talk about divorce for a moment.

My parents were divorced when I was five years old, so I speak as one who has first hand experience in both the pain and the host of insecurities that are often a byproduct of a failed marriage. My first observation has to do with the cavalier attitude toward divorce popularized by the law firms who specialize in dissolving marriages.

For instance, I came across a full color advertisement hanging on the wall in a men’s restroom with this slug line: “Don’t Let Your Starter Wife Take Your Dream House.”

Starter Wife?

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: divorce, marriage

Priceless Memories

I was scheduled to be in Ireland for several days of meetings last week. I packed, kissed the family goodbye, tossed my bags in the trunk, and headed to Denver – alone. While I enjoy traveling and working with our partners around the world, I sure miss my family. Upon arriving at the Denver International Airport, I was in for a surprise. The United Airlines representative informed me that my flight was delayed.

Translation: I’d miss my connection to London and, in turn, wouldn’t make it to Ireland in time for several key meetings.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: family, parenting

Karate-Chopping Mom

If there’s one resource that my mother could have used, it would have been Dr. Dobson’s book Parenting Isn’t For Cowards. After all, as a child there were times when I was quite the handful. Case in point.

As a six year old, I tagged along with my mom whenever she went grocery shopping. You see, I always got to pick out a toy. If I didn’t get one, I’d throw a full-body tantrum – the kind of fit that turned the heads of other moms.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: family, parenting

A Father’s Heart

Life is short. It’s longer for some, shorter for others.

Even to live to be 120, in the grand scheme of things – specifically, in view of eternity – life is still short. Which is probably why Moses prayed, “So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” None of us knows how long we have to live. Moses knew that making the most of our moments on earth comes from gaining God’s perspective on what’s really important.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, parenting

Arresting News

I came across a news story several months back that I’ve been meaning to comment on. Here’s The New York Post headline that originally caught my eye: Arrests Soar For Young & Ruthless. In their report the Post documented an alarming trend in crimes committed by youth in New York City. No question, the facts are disturbing: 52,936 youth (ages 13-18) had been arrested during 2006. Don’t rush too quickly past that figure.

That’s more than half the population of Albany, the state’s capital.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: family, kids, parenting