Jim Daly

Why Treating Your Family Like Customers is a Good Idea

It’s a familiar formula for movie and TV plots: the hugely successful, workaholic husband and dad is a failure at home. His wife feels like he’s a stranger, and his kids resent him. The man’s life is crumbling around him, even while his career is in high gear.

The reason the plot is used again and again is because it sadly echoes reality in far too many homes across the country.

But what if I told you that the same principles and techniques that husband and father applies to his professional life would also help him excel at home?

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: relationships

The Story Behind the Preborn Baby with Down Syndrome

The heartwarming story taking the Internet by storm the past few days almost reads like a fast-paced movie script.

A young couple pregnant with a baby diagnosed with Down syndrome are planning to abort. A priest learns about the situation, and steps in. He tells the couple he’ll find a home for that baby if they choose to deliver – however, the woman is planning her abortion for the next day.

It’s a race against time, so the Rev.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting

Five Things Every Dad Should Know

When I was an eight-year-old boy, I looked to Hank, the father figure in my life, for all the things the other kids my age seemed to enjoy with their dads. Sadly, Hank wasn’t willing to be engaged in my life. He adored my mom, but my siblings and I were simply excess baggage. While my mother was affectionate and nurturing, Hank’s love for us was missing in action. As a youngster longing for a strong, caring father figure in my life, it would have gone a long way toward forging a close bond between Hank and my siblings and me if he had:

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: husband, kids, parenting, relationships

What Kind of Person Are You?

Do you know yourself?

Blaise Pascal once said, “There are two kinds of men, the righteous who believe themselves sinners: the rest, sinners, who believe themselves righteous.”

C.S. Lewis agreed. “When a man is getting better,” he once wrote, “he understands more and more clearly the evil that is left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he’s not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he’s all right.”

At the very core of Christianity is an understanding of our own inadequacy.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith

Was George Carlin Right?

We’ve just returned from a great week of camping in Yellowstone National Park. I need to plow into all the work that accumulated while we were away, but before doing so, I wanted to share one quick thought.

The late comedian George Carlin once said, “Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.”

I get it! Perhaps a soft bed and a warm shower are more your style.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting

Trent’s First Fish

Have you ever noticed that when kids are young and growing fast, something from only four years back seems like an eternity ago? In that spirit, I’d like to share a great memory with you – “way back” from 2009. I hope it brings a smile to your face. Have a great weekend!

***

My dad never took me fishing—which explains why I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to the sport. I was never shown the ropes.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting

On Vacations and Rest

Summer is officially here, and along with it traditionally comes a season when many families take time to vacation and be together to rest, regroup and have some fun.

I say “traditionally” because such vacations may be becoming increasingly rare.

There are no legally mandated paid holidays in the United States, but many businesses and organizations do offer their workers paid time off as part of their compensation package. However, Americans leave as many as 175 million available vacation days unused in the typical year.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, finances, kids, marriage, parenting

How Your Relationship with Your In-Laws Impacts Your Marriage

A few months ago, I ran a post about in-laws and the marriage relationship that really struck a chord in the Daly Focus community and resulted in good conversation in the comments section.

I’m reposting the piece today because it dovetails perfectly with today’s broadcast, “Establishing Healthy Boundaries with Your In-Laws (Part 1 of 2).” Our guests, Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend, share practical advice and encouragement for married couples, and talk about how a good in-law relationship can have a positive impact on marriage.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage, parenting

Analyzing the Supreme Court’s Decisions on Marriage

I’m still away with my family in Virginia, but I was able to record an important broadcast on Wednesday’s Supreme Court rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8.

On today’s Focus on the Family Daily Broadcast, you’ll hear as Dr. Al Mohler, Focus Board member and president of Southern Seminary and George Mason University law professor Helen Alvare and I discuss the rulings expected impact to families and the Church. (To read my post that discussed the rulings, click here.)

It was a heavy conversation at times, as the decisions were largely disappointing to those of us who believe in God’s design for marriage and family.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: broadcast, homosexuality, marriage, policy, religious liberty

Millennial Support for Marriage is #NotDeadYet

The media loves a “narrative,” the familiar storyline they tell and tell again. And in light of yesterday’s deeply disappointing Supreme Court decisions regarding marriage, one such narrative that we see again and again is that the younger crowd, the millennial generation, doesn’t care about preserving marriage. If you’re a believer in natural marriage, that’s a tough thing to swallow. Fortunately, however, that’s not the complete picture.

Millions of teens and twenty-somethings are standing firm for marriage.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: homosexuality, marriage, news, policy

Why Treating Your Family Like Customers is a Good Idea

The Story Behind the Preborn Baby with Down Syndrome

Five Things Every Dad Should Know

What Kind of Person Are You?

Was George Carlin Right?

Trent’s First Fish

On Vacations and Rest

How Your Relationship with Your In-Laws Impacts Your Marriage

Analyzing the Supreme Court’s Decisions on Marriage

Millennial Support for Marriage is #NotDeadYet

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