Jim Daly

Back in the Saddle Again

It’s been nearly two weeks since my motorcycle accident, and I’m finally back at the office. The left ankle is in a cast and healing, though doctors tell me I’m still twelve weeks away from being able to put any pressure on the foot itself. Despite the pain and the awkwardness of getting around and having to prop the foot up on pillows, it’s good to be on campus again.

As the old saying goes, sometimes a change is better than a rest.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: family, staff

The Cost of Independence – #1

There is an old saying that suggests a person’s worst difficulties begin when he is able to do what he likes.

I think there is wisdom within those words.

America will celebrate her 234th birthday on Sunday with its usual grand and glorious traditions. Don’t you just love all the pomp and pageantry, along with the flags and fireworks that accompany family and community gatherings?

What a day! Thank God for the United States of America.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, religious liberty

Condoms for Kids?

There is news out of Massachusetts this week that the Provincetown School Board has decided to revise their controversial plan to make condoms available to children as young as 5 years of age.

Of course, revising an immoral policy without fully addressing the root cause of the objection can sometimes amount to patching a screen door on a submarine.

As originally drafted, any child in Provincetown schools could have requested a condom and received one without a parent ever knowing of the transaction.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: kids, parenting, policy

Are You Afraid to Die?

As a subject of conversation, death is an uncomfortable topic. Should it be?

Some of us are more intimately familiar with it than others, but it’s ultimately a reality that touches everyone. Having just survived a harrowing motorcycle accident and been spared serious injury, I’m sure you can appreciate the fact that this topic is on my mind.

In that context, let me take you back to something written by John Donne (1572-1631). Donne was both an English preacher and a prolific writer who lived at a time when church bells would regularly peal out across cities as part of funeral proceedings.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith

I Crashed My Motorcycle

I’ll admit it, I’ve had better days.

I crashed and flipped my motorcycle two days ago while riding with some friends on the west side of Monarch Summit. We were up near Gunnison, Colorado enjoying the trip when my world turned upsidedown—literally. In the process, I shattered and dislocated my left ankle and tore several ligaments.

Friday morning, the day after the spill, Jean and the boys asked me how I felt. “Like I just played in a game of tackle football,” I told them.

Continue ReadingTopics: Focus Events Tags: events, staff

One Father Too Many

The Obama administration is actively changing the cultural norms of our country. Equally troubling, the nation’s chief executive is doing so at the expense of our most vulnerable—the rising ranks of fatherless children.

I’m disappointed President Obama has marred an otherwise noble initiative designed to raise awareness of, and offer solutions for, father absence with a political tip of the cap to advocates of homosexual parenting.

This past Sunday, the 100th anniversary of Father’s Day, within the traditional White House proclamation, the president included a single incendiary sentence that not only undermines the unique and complementary roles of mothers and fathers, but also one which science simply does not support.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: events, homosexuality, marriage

Your Money and Abortion

Would it shock or anger you to learn that your tax dollars have been paying for abortion, albeit indirectly, for years? Wait until you read some new figures just out this week in a report published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

During this past winter’s highly controversial debate over the universal health care bill, Focus on the Family and CitizenLink, along with other numerous other pro-life groups, fought passionately, though ultimately unsuccessfully, to prohibit the legislation’s inclusion of federally funded abortion coverage.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: policy, pro-life

No-Fault Parenting

One of the treats about being a father and having children is the chance to watch yourself grow up all over again. Have you ever thought about it that way? I certainly have. Admittedly, life in 2010 is drastically different than it was in 1960s America when I was a boy, but the essence and wonder of childhood are primarily the same. Or is it?

There are many days when I catch a glimpse of Trent and Troy doing something that ushers me back 40 or so years.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: discipline, kids, parenting, pop culture

Is the Good Life Good Enough?

Are you living a fulfilled life? Are you content where you are?

Those always seem like good questions to ponder, but I think they’re especially relevant in light of the recent news concerning Al and Tipper Gore’s marital separation. Please stay with me here. I don’t read the gossip columns nor do I spend time reading the tabloids. But I do try and make sense of the times in which we live and, as such, I’m always processing what I see and hear.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: divorce, faith, family, parenting

The Rest of the Story

Does this scene sound somewhat familiar?

A young, married, pregnant woman is admitted to a hospital. She is in pain, but not quite sure what is happening. Early labor? Perhaps. Complications associated with the pregnancy? Maybe. After some tests are conducted, the diagnosis is made: Appendicitis.

The frightened woman is relieved and treated. But at the end of the surgery the doctor advises that her baby is likely to be born with a disability. Why? A consequence of the treatment which had been necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: pro-life