Jim Daly

Understanding Your Spouse’s Personality

It’s really true: opposites do attract.

If you’re married, then you’ve likely experienced it in countless ways. Your spouse sees the world through entirely different eyes. You fall asleep to noise, but your spouse needs quiet. You’re a night owl, but your spouse enjoys mornings. For the most part, with a little communication, these differences can be navigated.

But sometimes it’s differences in communication itself that are the problem.

That dilemma is captured imaginatively in the title of a book written by today’s guests, Bill and Pam Farrel: “Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti.”

It’s a simple word picture to illustrate the inherent differences between men and women.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, husband, marriage, wife

Four Ways Parents Can Protect Their Kids from Sexting

It’s the type of story that makes parents shudder:

Students exchanging nude photos on their phones.

Members of the Cañon City High School football team here in Colorado allegedly exchanged and collected hundreds of nude photographs of more than 100 students. Some of the students photographed were in middle school. And it seems all of this was part of a competition where points were assigned per picture.

As a colleague remarked, if this type of scandal is occurring in a small town like Cañon City, you know it’s happening all over America.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: family, kids, parenting, pop culture, technology

How to Get Organized for Christmas

Is it too early to start thinking about Christmas?

Well, it’s not if you hope to get yourself organized, so you can have a smooth December and enjoy a stress-free Christmas season.

A lot of you can relate. Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, a time when we reflect on our Savior who came as a baby in a manger and soon took upon Himself the sins of the world.

Instead, we get caught up in all the “stuff” of Christmas: the lights, the decorations, the shopping.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, events, family

Is God Calling You to Adopt?

November is National Adoption Month.

Have you considered the role God might have for you to positively impact the lives of orphans?

If you answered no, you’re not alone. A lot of couples wrestle with whether or not they should adopt, or if there’s some other part they should play.

That was how Mike and Kristin Berry’s story began.

Kristin just assumed she and Mike would adopt children when they married. Adoption had been a legacy for Kristin’s family for decades.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: adoption, broadcast, kids, parenting, pro-life

How to Escape the Comparison Trap

Theodore Roosevelt, always quick with a succinct and witty quip, said it well.

“Comparison,” he once observed, “is the thief of joy.”

And so it is.

Kay Wyma, our broadcast guest today, shares this illustration for how easily – and early – comparing ourselves to others begins.

She took her kids and a few of their friends to a day of fun at a local water park. On the very first ride, a young boy in their group was told he wasn’t tall enough to join everyone else.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, pop culture

How God Healed a “Messy” Marriage

We’re inspired by love stories because of their happy endings. But, more often than not, before the “happily ever after,” fairy tale couples usually have to travel a lot of hard road.

That was certainly the case with Irene and Domingo Garcia. In fact, the beginning of their story was characterized by so much brokenness and conflict it was unlikely they could have ever had a happy ending.

Irene was 13 when she first met Domingo, a 16-year-old, street-wise tough guy who was already an alcoholic.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, husband, marriage, wife

Common Sense Wins in Houston

Election night 2015 brought victories for religious freedom and common sense.

Last night we saw many encouraging signs from around the country that voters are concerned with issues ranging from religious freedom to the expansion of recreational drug use to the safety and privacy concerns of women and children.

Here are some of the highlights:

First, Houston voters overwhelmingly rejected a controversial city ordinance that would have allowed men suffering from gender confusion to use women’s bathrooms and locker rooms around the city.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: church, family, news, policy, religious liberty

Four Ways Failing Marriages and Healthy Marriages Look the Same

If a couple in your church was headed for divorce, would anyone be able to see it coming before it was too late?

Chances are less likely than you might think, according to a new study that Focus on the Family sponsored through LifeWay Research. The study found that in the three months leading up to divorce, churchgoing couples in troubled marriages show similar levels of involvement as those in healthy marriages in four areas:

Attend church once a week or more
Involvement in a small group
Serve in community ministries
Hold positions of responsibility at church

What’s even more astounding is that nearly one-third of churchgoers who divorced never told anyone in their congregation that they were experiencing marital problems.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, husband, marriage, wife

What Is God Asking You to Do?

Are the people around you struggling in some area of life? Maybe the real question is: Are you attentive enough that you would notice?

Let’s face it, we tend to have pretty shallow relationships with most of the people we cross paths with every day. We ask co-workers how they’re doing when we pass in the hall, but we expect a generic “fine, thank you,” rather than a genuine answer.

It could be that someone near us is having a rough go of it, but we’d never notice because we’re too wrapped up in our own daily routines.

Continue ReadingTopics: Focus Events Tags: broadcast, faith, pastors

Can We Love Ourselves Too Much?

Pinocchio had a big nose.

Of course, that’s because it grew when he told a lie.

But the old tale about a wooden puppet who wanted to become a real boy conveys a message much deeper than just the perils of lying.

It’s a cautionary tale about selfishness.

Pinocchio lied to feed his selfish nature, and selfishness only offers temporary happiness. In the end, it makes you less than what God created you to be.

The story begins with Gepetto, Pinocchio’s father, telling him the wise way to live.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith