Daly Focus Blog
Author Rhonda Stoppe felt prepared to be a great mom when her daughter was born. But, a few years later when she had a son, her confidence dissipated. Raising a girl felt easy. Raising a boy felt intimidating.
Many moms can relate. They understand how their daughters think, feel, and see the world. Not so their sons. My wife, Jean, did an amazing job of adapting to our two boys and creating meaningful connections with both, but she worked hard at it.
Many people keep on the lookout for big opportunities that will change their lives. But often it’s the small, seemingly insignificant moments that have the greatest impact.
Author Cecil Murphy tells how a broken heel unexpectedly led to a new life for a woman named Betty. Going about her business one day, she broke the heel of her shoe as she stepped into the street. When she sat on the curb to nurse her ankle, she noticed a shoe store for the first time, even though she must have walked by it dozens of times.
Most couples are madly in love on their wedding day. They’re infatuated, passionate, and convinced they’ll always feel this way.
Over time, however, the sizzle begins to fizzle. There’s the first big argument, then little annoyances creep into the relationship, and the couple soon gets caught up in the daily grind of life. Before long, one spouse or the other begins to wonder, “Is this all there is to our marriage? Where did our love go?”
On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “How to Stay Crazy in Love with Your Spouse,” my colleagues Greg and Erin Smalley are with us to inspire couples to build a lifelong, loving relationship utilizing “love secrets”:
True love commits
True love seeks God
True love fights for peace
True love honors
True love needs time to grow
True love embraces
True love endures
We’re discussing what true love looks like and how married couples can express that love to each other in meaningful and godly ways throughout their lifetime.
Young girls seem to be maturing physically earlier than past generations. In fact, some counselors warn that if you haven’t discussed puberty and sexual development with your child by age 8 or 9, somebody else likely already has.
If that’s alarming to you, tune in to our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Guiding Your Daughter into Womanhood.” We’re equipping moms to prepare for and effectively discuss with their daughter all the physical, emotional, and spiritual developments that come with puberty – that important stage in a child’s life where the body begins to change in significant ways.
Are you ready to take on the ultimate holiday movie challenge? It’s easy and, best of all, it will bring you together as a family. Here it is. Between now and Christmas, sit down together as a family and watch as many Christmas movies as you can.
I don’t usually recommend families spend more time in front of a screen, but I’ll happily make an exception in this case. The Christmas season is a wonderful time of year for families to reconnect.
The tingles can get you married. They can also get you divorced.
Dr. Gary Chapman has heard a lot of couples in premarital counseling talk about “the tingles” – that emotional flutter we feel when we’re attracted to each other.
“The tingles” play an important role in forming romantic relationships. They turn a simple hello into a lunch date, and before long the couple is so inseparable they decide to get married.
But the tingles fade.
A Colorado rancher once shared an insight with me that illustrates the balance between discipline and love in parenting. He said he employed two strategies for guiding his cattle to where he wanted them on his ranch. The first was a well. Cattle roam miles of grassland when they’re grazing, but they usually stay close to their water source. The second strategy was barbed wire. The barbs produce just enough discomfort to deter cattle from pushing beyond the boundary.
On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Laying Your Life on the Line for Christ,” I’m speaking with Virginia Prodan, who grew up behind the Iron Curtain in Romania, terrorized by dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Although he promised U.S. authorities that he would respect human and religious rights in order to gain most-favored-nation status and be awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in trade, Ceausescu’s regime confiscated Bibles, demolished churches, and persecuted Christians.
Virginia’s family members had their bank accounts seized by the government and their homes raided by armed communist sympathizers.
When Dr. Tony Evans served as a chaplain for the National Football League, he got the opportunity to speak to players on the eve of the Super Bowl. What he remembers most about that moment was the intense focus he saw in their eyes. Each player was locked in on the task at hand: winning a championship. They weren’t satisfied with a great season or a winning playoff run. They wanted a Lombardi Trophy.
What’s your Lombardi Trophy?
I love Thanksgiving.
There’s great food – thank you, Jean – and plenty of football. Most important of all, Thanksgiving is a time for thanking God for His incredible blessings.
I’m thankful for my wife and two boys and for the help we’ve been able to provide families through foster care. I’m also thankful for what God does through Focus on the Family. Marriages and preborn babies are being saved. Moms and dads are becoming better parents, and our ministry is leading people to Christ.
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.
