Daly Focus Blog
“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
Quick. Who said that?
If you don’t know the answer, here’s a clue: He was an American Patriot who said those words at the age of twenty-one, just before he was hanged.
Still no guesses?
Don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. That kind of rich history hasn’t been taught very well for decades. It’s alarming, frankly.
Knowing our history is important, for reasons far deeper than memorizing a sea of dates and names.
One of the first things people ask each other when they meet is, “What do you do?” Sometimes we offer the answer to that question without even being asked. We define who we are by what we do.
That God made man responsible for naming the animals is testimony to His desire that we be creative and productive (Genesis 2:20). The “dark side” of finding our identity in what we do is that we can get caught in a performance trap.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Christian faith, or your passion for your faith has cooled, you’ll want to join us for our next couple editions of our Focus on the Family Broadcast.
We’re sharing a recorded message called “Reasons to Believe in Jesus” by author and British evangelist J.John. With plenty of humor, he explains why he is certain that the teachings of Christianity are absolutely true and reminds us why only Christianity can fill our lives with real hope in the midst of the problems of this world.
Fortunately,
I got out of it. Not because I outsmarted anybody, but because somebody showed
me grace when I deserved judgment.
My final
year of high school I worked for a produce company in southern California. One
day my boss had me tag along with one of the truck drivers. We drove for hours
to drop off a load of potatoes, only to discover when we got there that all of
the workers had gone on strike.
Dr. Jerome Adams is the United States Surgeon General and our special guest on today’s Focus on the Family Broadcast.
You’ve undoubtedly seen the Surgeon General in the news these last few weeks, often providing timely updates at the daily White House briefings on the coronavirus.
Dr. Adams is an eminently qualified physician with an extensive resume, but he’s also a man of deep Christian faith.At one point on the program, the doctor quotes 1 Peter 5:7: “Cast your anxiety on Him for He cares for you.”
He then went on to say that God is at work in the midst of this crisis.
Is it possible to enjoy an argument-free marriage?
Author Fawn Weaver says that you can.
Now, before you dismiss her vision for marital bliss
too quickly, give her a chance to explain. She’ll tell you plainly that building
an argument-free marriage takes some grit. Ironically, couples don’t find
harmony by striving for peace at all costs. They don’t avoid serious
conversations or sweep important issues under the rug, either.
You eliminate arguments through effective
communication that gets to the truth of a matter and that offers genuine
solutions.
Corrie ten Boom once said,
“Worry is like a rocking chair. It keeps you moving, but it doesn’t get you
anywhere.”
There’s plenty of opportunity to worry and be
fearful these days. Society has ground to a halt in very real ways. And yet,
the world around us still seems hectic and chaotic.
The more we’re immersed in uncertainty, the more
likely we are to develop “spiritual
amnesia.” That’s what author Lee Strobel calls the worry and anxiety we feel over the
unknown because we’ve forgotten everything that God has done for us in the past.
Author Dave Willis saw the life-changing power of love on a visit to an orphanage in Guatemala called Casa Shalom, which means “house of peace.”
The privately-run Christian orphanage serves about a hundred kids at a time in a place where most orphanages are government-run and fraught with corruption. Some of the children have been sex-trafficked, exploited by the very people who should have been protecting them.
On his first visit there, Dave was introduced to a young Guatemalan girl named Margarita.
The question we get from a lot of moms and dads as the spread of the coronavirus dominates the news is, “What’s the best way to do family devotions, practically speaking?”
Could it be that for all the uncertainty and fear associated with this pandemic, it also presents you with an opportunity to make the most of this unanticipated extra time together?
My wife Jean and I have done devotions with our boys all their lives.
Skyscrapers are amazing feats of engineering. They have to be strong enough to resist the forces that come against them, like gravity and wind. That’s why skyscrapers are built with steel.
They also need to be flexible enough to withstand the forces that come against them … like gravity and wind. That’s why architects design skyscrapers with a certain amount of sway.
Strength and softness. The two sides of a superstructure. The two sides of love as well.
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.
