Daly Focus Blog
I’ve previously shared how parents can pass along a lasting faith to their kids. In a nutshell, there are two things parents should do:
Live out an authentic, vibrant faith themselves
Help their children develop spiritual habits, like regular prayer and Scripture reading
But as times change and technology brings us increased convenience, I’ve wondered if an unintended consequence is that, in some areas, our digital life could potentially undermine our efforts to model the faith?
Thousands of churches will be remembering the 21 Christian Egyptian martyrs who were recently killed by Islamic terrorists this Sunday, Feb. 22 through a moment of silence followed by a time of prayer.
This time of remembrance is part of a movement sponsored by various Christian groups, including Focus on the Family, through the 21martyrs.com. Church leaders can find a short but powerful video at the website that reflects on the persecution Christians around the world are facing – and the Bible’s promises to the persecuted.
Do you know someone planning to get married?
Our new “Engaged! Marriage Preparation for Couples” app is designed to help men and women get ready for their new lives together as husband and wife.
Divided into 15 topics, the app provides introductory as well as in-depth Christian teaching and articles, and includes more than 16 hours of audio and video content designed for couples to review and discuss together.
Research shows that couples who devote time to premarital counselling are both happier in the short-term and more likely to avoid divorce, long-term.
Vince Lombardi was the legendary football coach of the Green Bay Packers. Throughout the 1960s, his teams dominated the National Football League. But their astounding success was not the result of new and innovative ways to play the game. It was quite the opposite.
In fact, one notorious example demonstrates how adamant Coach Lombardi was that his players master the fundamentals. At the beginning of training camp the year after one of the team’s most successful seasons, Lombardi gathered his men for a pep talk.
The tragic images are almost impossible to see and process.
There on the shore of Libya stand 21 young Christian Egyptian men, each clad in an orange jumpsuit. Behind each man is a hooded radical Islamist, holding a knife.
We know what’s coming next.
If American Christians were ever tempted to believe martyrs are only people we read about in the Bible and history books, the 21 men who were brutally beheaded because they called Jesus Christ their Savior remind us nothing could be further from the truth.
Maybe you know this feeling a little too well.
You see other families from the outside, and they look exactly like what you envision a good Christian home to be. Their children don’t squabble, and they obey their parents with almost gleeful enthusiasm. Life seems perfect.
But your reality seems a lot different. You break up two or three spats between the kids before you even leave for church. And once you get there, you paint a smile on your face and answer everybody’s, “How’re you doing?” with a robotic, “I’m great.”
But deep inside you know things aren’t great.
The movie doesn’t debut for another two weeks, but already “The Drop Box” is selling out theaters in cities like Los Angeles, Atlanta, San Diego, Miami, Denver, San Antonio, Phoenix, St. Louis and right here in Colorado Springs.
We’re really encouraged by this positive response to the film that we’ve produced in partnership with Kindred Image. Church and community leaders are purchasing group tickets or even buying out theaters so they can help spread the important message this movie brings.
It’s a little sad how even the most heartfelt phrases can sometimes become habit.
“I love you.”
These are three meaningful words that every husband and wife should say to each other, often.
And yet, sometimes even this beautiful expression can lose some of its luster.
That’s why I appreciated the heart behind this video: a husband and wife, together for 56 years, were asked to describe what they felt for each other … but with one catch.
The movie “Fifty Shades of Grey” premieres this weekend. It’s ironic the film is being marketed as a “love” story, because it’s anything but.
Real men don’t denigrate, exploit and abuse women.
After much soul searching, Focus on the Family’s media discernment arm, Plugged In, decided to review this film. Paul Asay explains why in a post on the Plugged In Blog. Here’s some of what he had to say:
Religion News Service reports that advance tickets are selling particularly briskly in “the Bible Belt and the Midwest,” statistically the two most heavily churched parts of the country…
I don’t believe our primary mission at Plugged In is to say nice things about nice movies: It’s to shine that light in a sometimes murky world.
Do you think of your marriage as a “magnificent obsession”?
Hopefully, you’re on the journey toward seeing your relationship in that light. But each of us – at different times in different ways – allows self-interest to tarnish our marriage’s potential.
Selfishness can creep into a relationship from the moment a man and a woman meet, even when they don’t mean for it to. In the initial months of dating, couples pursue a relationship because they like the way they feel when they’re together.
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.
