Jim Daly

Helping Teen Girls Love Their Family Well

Jessie Minassian knows the struggles teenage girls face. She’s an author, a speaker, and a blogger who is passionate about mentoring young women. And she lived through some challenging teen years herself.

At one point, Jessie went through such a difficult time that she plotted to run away from home. Her plan fell apart before she even stepped outside of her house, but it was a turning point in her life. She decided that if she was going to stay, she ought to “stay well” and make the most of her time with her family.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: family, kids, parenting

Showing True Love to Your Spouse

No word defines marriage quite like the word love. But what is love, really? Is it simply an emotion we feel? Or is it something deeper?

In some ways, it’s no surprise that we struggle to understand love. The word we use has become such a generic term that the richness of its meaning is often lost. That’s because in English there’s one word for love with a full spectrum of nuance. You can say, “I love my spouse,” and in the next breath say, “I love potato chips.” Same word.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage

Improving Your Sex Life to Improve Your Marriage

What kind of “sex-pectations” do you and your spouse have?

In the book Married Sex: A Christian Couple’s Guide to Reimagining Your Love Life, co-authors Gary Thomas and Debra Fileta define “sex-pectations” as beliefs about sex that couples have going into marriage.

Those expectations can often be unhealthy, shaped more by Hollywood than God’s Word. Aligning expectations with reality can be challenging for a couple. A great place to start is adopting a biblical perspective of sex and understanding the benefits of a healthy sex life to a couple’s relationship.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage

A Conversation with a “Mama Bear”

It was a great privilege to spend some time last week with our friends at the Virginia Family Foundation – an organization we’ve been proud to partner with over the past few decades.

During our time in Richmond, I had the opportunity to speak with Victoria Cobb, the foundation’s president – and Laura Murphy, a Virginia “Mama Bear” who was instrumental in confronting a local school board about inappropriate material in her child’s classroom.

I’m so grateful for Victoria and her team – and all the family policy councils across the country who champion family friendly policies.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family

The Biblical Truths Your Kids Need to Know

What should be the main focus of parenting?

Scripture provides a clear job description for parents in Deuteronomy 6:7, which says “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

Teaching your children God’s Word can happen in a structured setting like family devotions, but Scripture encourages parents to weave conversation about God into everyday life.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, parenting

How to Speak Your Child’s Love Languages

What if you and your children each spoke different languages?

Imagine the challenges. How would you communicate? How would you express your love? Even if you repeatedly said the words, “I love you,” your child might never be able to fully receive your love on an emotional level. To communicate in a way that your child understands, you would need to learn to speak his or her language.

The truth is your child does speak his or her own language.

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

Freedom is the Pathway Out of the COVID-19 Quagmire

Results of the autopsy of intrusive and overreaching government policies related to the COVID -19 global pandemic are beginning to emerge – and they paint a disturbing and disastrous picture.

A just released Johns Hopkins study concluded lockdowns weren’t effective in reducing mortality rates – and in fact did great damage to the economy along with children’s mental, emotional and academic health. For far too many adults, forced isolation exacerbated loneliness, increased anxiety and drastically diminished quality of life.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: events

Dating Tips for Today’s Singles

Author Jonathan Pokluda confronts two myths that prevent men and women alike from making the most of their single and dating years.

First is that being single is merely a waiting period for something better. The truth is that singleness is not a problem to be fixed; it’s a gift to be used to live life more fully.

Jonathan tells Christian singles, “You will never be more uninhibited, more available, and more ready to serve God than you are right now as a single person.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, relationships

Tom Brady Retires in Search of Something Money Can’t Buy

Future Hall of Fame quarterback and seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady officially announced his retirement on Tuesday, walking away from the gridiron at the top of his game after his 22nd season in the NFL.

According to Forbes, the seemingly ageless footballer earned $293 million in salary with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers – and an additional $160 million in endorsement contracts.

Tom Brady toyed with playing an additional year and was given plenty of financial incentive to do so.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: faith

Five Reasons to Remain Hopeful in a Post Christian World

My friend Dr. Tim Keller is out this week with his second essay in a planned four-part series on the decline of evangelicalism, and what that troubling trend means for Christians going forward.

Tim, who is courageously battling pancreatic cancer (and doing well), offers a thoughtful, candid – and hopeful – assessment about our current state of affairs. I’ve long said that leadership is knowing reality and suggesting solutions to problems. That’s precisely what my pastor friend does on a regular basis, even though he’s no longer preaching each Sunday.

Although Tim ultimately brings a hopeful message, he’s by no means myopic about where things are for evangelical Christians today.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events