Jim Daly

Listen to “The Best of 2014” Broadcasts

It’s “best of” time on the Focus on the Family daily broadcast! During the months of December through February, we’re going to be re-airing our best, most popular broadcasts of the year – the ones we heard back from our listeners the most on.

Here’s a rundown of the best of 2014 Focus broadcasts:

Dec 1-2 – Moving From Loneliness to Intimacy in Your Marriage I-II – Dr. David Clarke
Dec 3 – Serving God in Our Culture – Lecrae
Dec 4-5 – Overcoming the Obstacles of Cerebral Palsy I-II – Lisa Sexton and Dr.

Continue ReadingTopics: Focus Events Tags: broadcast

Three Ways to Fight Childhood Obesity… at Home

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents over the past 30 years. Along with it comes an increase in all the health problems associated with obesity: tendencies towards heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and bone and joint problems.

So, what can be done about it?

It would seem patently obvious that the solution to obesity in children is to have them eat healthy and move around more.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting

Who’s the Better Christian?

Let’s try to guess which of these two men is doing more to expand the Kingdom of God.

We’ll call the first guy Kevin. Kevin gets up every morning at 5:30 a.m. and gets ready for a long commute into his downtown office where he works in middle management in the banking industry. He works hard because he has a family to support: a wife, three kids and a dog.

Calvin is our second guy – “Pastor C,” as the kids in youth group call him.

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

The Spiritual Side of Dogs

Pick up any Christmas catalog this season, from L.L. Bean to Orvis, and you’re bound to see images of cute puppies and family dogs.

There sits a friendly retriever by the crackling fireplace, snuggled up on his tartan-plaid dog bed. Or there’s pajama-clad junior, hugging his new canine friend, a red bow around his collar.

There’s a reason the late Peanuts creator Charles Schulz once suggested that “Happiness is a warm puppy.”

Just see how many advertisements include a dog or a cat.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family

What Marriage and Volcanoes Have in Common

Mount Erebus in Antarctica is one of the most active volcanoes on earth.

The region averages fifty-eight degrees below zero in the winter and on an especially balmy summer day the temperature can nudge toward four below. Combine those frigid temperatures with hot gases escaping from ground vents around the volcano, and massive ice structures form, towering forty to fifty feet high.

They’re an oddly beautiful sight in such an unforgiving landscape.

And they exist because of opposite forces coming together.

Continue ReadingTopics: Focus Events Tags: broadcast, marriage

Gold Medalist Scott Hamilton, Wife Adopt Two Children

Gold-medal-winning Olympian Scott Hamilton and his wife, Tracie, recently doubled the number of children in their family. The couple, who already have two biological children, adopted a brother and sister from Haiti, reports The Today Show.

The Hamiltons first learned of Evelyne, 11, and Jean Paul, 13, two years ago in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit the island nation through Tracie’s volunteer work. Tracie quickly fell in love with the pair after visiting one particular Hatian orphanage.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: adoption, faith, pop culture

Happy Thanksgiving!

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” (I Chronicles 16:34)

It’s a wonderful thing to live in a nation that, once a year, sets aside an official day of thanksgiving. We certainly are a blessed people, and there is much to give thanks for. I hope you and your family are enjoying the day.

If you are looking for something to do with your family that will emphasize the themes of thanksgiving, forgiveness and friendship, may I suggest listening to today’s broadcast, “Squanto: A Thanksgiving Drama”?

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WATCH: How This Church’s Gift Saves Lives

This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for a small country church and its big-hearted members.

We first learned of Silver Lake Church of the Bible (Silver Lake, Oregon) from a simple letter. The story Pastor Leon Baker shared in that letter started in 2006.

After listening to a Focus broadcast, “The Lord laid it upon my heart to begin collecting for the purchase of an ultrasonic machine,” he wrote.

And for eight years, that’s what Pastor Baker and his congregation did.

Continue ReadingTopics: Focus Events Tags: church, faith, pro-life

14 Different Faith Traditions Agree on This

You may have heard of the recent interfaith conference on marriage at the Vatican. The three-day event brought together 14 faith traditions from 23 countries, and included the participation of prominent evangelicals such as Dr. Russell Moore and Rick Warren. Focus marriage expert Glenn Stanton also attended the event.

“The Complementarity of Man and Woman: An International Colloquium” served to gather leaders and scholars to examine marriage “in order to support and reinvigorate marriage and family life for the flourishing of human society.” It reaffirmed the centuries-old belief shared by the different faiths that vital to marriage is the complementary nature of man and woman.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: faith, marriage

Teaching Kids to Be Grateful

Isn’t it strange that in a nation nicknamed the “land of opportunity” that so many struggle to find happiness?

I think, in part, that’s because we haven’t learned the discipline of gratitude. I’m not talking about the brief moments here and there where we acknowledge God’s blessings. I’m talking about living a life of gratitude.

Maybe gratitude is difficult because cynicism is too easy.

By nature, I’m an optimist. But it’s easy to turn pessimistic from time to time.

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