Daly Focus Blog
What’s your favorite Christmas memory?
Maybe your mind drifts back to childhood when you helped pick out the family Christmas tree. Or you think of that special gift your parents got you even though money was tight. It could even be a warm kitchen on a cold, snowy day as you baked cookies with your grandmother.
As simple as these and other memories may seem, they’re more significant than you might think. Christmas memories help shape our sense of identity.
On a wall of our offices at Focus on the Family we have a Bible verse prominently posted. It reads:
“All the people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people, for everything had been accomplished so quickly.” – 2 Chronicles 29:36
That verse comes to mind every December when our public relations team compiles a news release of the year’s highlights.
It’s amazing to look back and realize what God has accomplished for His glory and for the benefit of families… all “quickly,” in a year.
When John and Lisa Henderson grew weary of the poor behavior of their three boys, ages 5, 8, and 11, the couple decided upon a radical remedy.
They decided to “cancel” Christmas.
No Santa. No stockings. No presents.
“We have not cancelled putting up decorations, celebrating the birth of our Savior, or any of our other heartwarming traditions,” Lisa explains in her recent blog post, which has gone viral and won the family an interview with “Good Morning America.”
But after months of working with their boys to help them curb a growing sense of entitlement and bad behavior, the parents decided to take the money they would have spent on presents and instead “put it towards service projects and giving gifts to others.”
Their goal?
I’ve blogged before about the many financial benefits marriage brings to couples, families and society. Along those lines, a recent article by the respected economist Lawrence Kudlow underscores the vital role of marriage in achieving a robust national economy.
In “Marriage Emerges as Key To Economic Growth,” Kudlow describes how the American economy has slowed from a previous average of 3.5 percent per year to a mere 1.8 percent annually – under both Republican and Democrat presidents and congresses.
Each day on the daily radio broadcast, John and I have the privilege of interviewing a great variety of people – all of them uniquely gifted by God.
We’ve featured athletes and authors; singers and activists; theologians and politicians… and it’s wonderful to see how they contribute in their own areas, for the glory of God.
By now you might be asking yourself what this has to do with unlocking your child’s potential.
Here’s the link…
All of the luminaries we feature on our broadcast were, at one point in their lives, kids.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
