Jim Daly

Ray Rice, Domestic Abuse and the Quest for a Chivalrous Society

The release and indefinite suspension earlier this week of (former) Baltimore Ravens football player Ray Rice has stirred up a robust discussion about domestic violence.

A videotape of the 27-year-old running back punching his then-fiancee, Janay, inside an Atlantic City casino hotel elevator surfaced on Monday. The incident occurred in March, and was reported to both NFL and team officials. Rice pleaded not guilty to third-degree aggravated assault and agreed to enter a rehabilitation program and get counseling.

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God in the Middle of Pain and Suffering

Few events in modern America’s collective consciousness embody pain and suffering like the terror attacks we experienced on Sept. 11, 2001. It was this generation’s Pearl Harbor, a day so unthinkable and awful that we spent months reeling from the shock of it. We ached as a nation. We grieved with moms and dads, husbands and wives, children and friends who had lost loved ones.

Where was God in the middle of all that heartache?

It’s a question many people asked themselves in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and understandably so.

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How to Overcome the Potty-Training Woes

It’s one of those lighthearted list-type articles that make for fun reading:

NPR’s recent “Global Parenting Habits That Haven’t Caught On In the U.S.” shows just how much culture impacts childrearing. I can only imagine that most American parents’ jaws will drop at the second item on the list – a claim that Vietnamese parents potty-train their babies by 9 months.

9 months?

Pretty hard to believe, yes? Apparently the secret lies in the Pavlov-like trick of whistling when the baby starts going to the bathroom.

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Remembering Chick-fil-A Founder S. Truett Cathy

By now you likely know that S. Truett Cathy, the beloved founder of the popular Chick-fil-A restaurants, died this morning. He was 93.

With more than 1,800 stores and $5 billion in annual sales, Truett will be remembered by many as an entrepreneurial genius, a fast-food pioneer and an astute man of business. His rags-to-riches story should inspire anyone. Opening a diner in Hapeville, Georgia, in 1946, Mr. Cathy launched the now iconic brand on a shoestring.

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VIDEO: Despite Alzheimer’s, He Remembers He Loves Her

Doris Amrine called the police after her husband went missing.

Her worry was understandable. Three years after Melvyn’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, he needs help to accomplish tasks like walking around the block. With his memory slipping away, Melvyn has trouble remembering how he had proposed to his wife of 60 years.

But the story I want to share with you today isn’t about what Melvyn has forgotten – it’s about what he remembered on the day he left the house.

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How to Heal Old Wounds

Do certain memories from your past still haunt you after all these years?

Every day Focus hears from good people who have faced difficult, even tragic, circumstances. Many endure life with a sense of agony few of their family and friends are even aware of.

In some cases, these folks refuse to seek help because they don’t believe it’s possible to overcome problems from so long ago. “Why bother?” they think. “What’s done is done. We can’t change the past.”

Strictly speaking, that’s true, of course.

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Are Youth Sports Coddling Our Kids?

You’ve likely seen the nostalgia-laced posts comparing life as a kid “back then” to life today, from school to the playground and everywhere in between.

For example, a recent list contrasted a 1970s school lunch with the typical fare of a child in 2014:

1970s: “Spread yellow mustard on bread. Slap baloney on bread. Unwrap American cheese slices and put on top of baloney. Put top on sandwich and wrap sandwich in tin foil or wax paper.

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Helping Your Kids Get Ready for Marriage

Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned roller coaster? Yet, as exciting as they are, even the most ardent thrill seekers wouldn’t choose to ride one every day for the rest of their lives.

Sadly, we hear from many husbands and wives who feel as if their marriage has become one long, scary, roller coaster ride. Things are up and down, unpredictable, unstable, and just not fun anymore. And many of these couples are looking for a way out.

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17 Pearls of Wisdom

I asked several of my colleagues here at Focus for their best dose of homespun parenting counsel. It should be a given that we’re to introduce our children to the Lord and disciple them throughout their childhood and beyond. I was mainly asking them for some very practical nuggets of wisdom.

Here is what they told me they regularly tell their children:

It’s never as good as you hear or as bad as you feel.
Learn to remember names.

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Too Busy to Rest?

I often feel like I’m burning the candle at both ends. I imagine the same may be true for you.

No matter how much we get done, there’s always one more thing to do.

And rest? There’s hardly time for that, is there?

I confess I’ve had moments where relaxing seemed like a waste of time. It felt like the absence of something – like an empty space where productivity ought to be – rather than an active and beneficial component to my life.

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