Daly Focus Blog
Julie and Clay’s first baby was due any time. To celebrate and to enjoy one last date night – at least for a while – Julie planned a romantic dinner at their favorite restaurant.
That evening, Julie arrived before Clay, and waited.
And waited.
He was supposed to come there straight from work, but twenty minutes passed and still no Clay. She called his phone. No answer.
Thirty minutes passed.
Then an hour.
Clay and Julie lost their reservation, and Julie’s expectations for the night were ruined.
You see somebody’s true character when they struggle.
That’s what’s so great about Jase and Missy Robertson, from the Duck Dynasty family. They’re the real deal. They’re as down home as they portray themselves to be. They also love Jesus and want you to know it.
The whole Robertson clan has a deep-seated faith in Christ. That was never more evident than when their daughter Mia was born with a cleft palate – a serious condition that required multiple cranial and facial surgeries, eight major procedures so far in the first 11 years of her life.
In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we want to share with you a powerful message about building racial harmony in our communities by my dear friend and brother in Christ, Carey Casey.
Carey lived through the real-life story captured in the movie Remember the Titans starring Denzel Washington as an African-American high school football coach who must overcome significant challenges after he’s hired to coach the school’s first racially integrated team. The Titans overcame tremendous adversity, worked through their racial differences, and won the state championship.
I could have been aborted.
I was born in the ’60s prior to Roe v. Wade, but even then many people felt my mother would have been justified to abort me. She was the perfect candidate. She was 42 and in a high-risk pregnancy. My dad was an alcoholic, and I was the fifth child of a marriage that was already struggling to stay together. I was born into a household in turmoil.
I could have been aborted.
Parents often discipline in terms of behavior modification:
“No backtalk.”
“Say please and thank you.”
“Stop picking on your brother” (with two boys, Jean and I have said that one a lot over the years).
“Put away your backpack.”
Outward behavior is an important part of raising children of character. But it’s only one side of the coin. The other is developing their inner motivation.
The root word of discipline is “disciple.” As disciples of Christ, we follow His teachings outwardly because our hearts are being transformed from within.
Joni Eareckson Tada says that suffering is “like a little splash-over of hell.”
Few people can talk about the intensity of suffering with more authority than Joni. A tragic accident fifty years ago left her a quadriplegic, requiring 24-hour care. She’s also survived a stage-3 breast cancer diagnosis, the removal of a 3-inch tumor, and months of chemotherapy that followed.
So when she talks about how to handle suffering in a way that enriches our lives and glorifies God, we all do well to listen.
Do you teach your children to clean their rooms?
How about to do their homework, to brush their teeth, or to match their clothes?
How about to give money, save money, and to spend it properly?
If you said no to that last one, it might be because you see your child’s allowance as simply an economic transfer instead of as a chance to develop their character.
Our guest for the next couple of programs is the money guru himself, radio host and bestselling author, Dave Ramsey.
I’ll never forget the day I got my driver’s license. It was all I could talk about for an entire year before. It was a time-honored tradition back then: do whatever necessary to get your license by the time you’re fifteen, no later than sixteen. That little plastic ID got me and my friends out of the house and enabled us to hang out with each other whenever and wherever we wanted. My driver’s license was key to my social world.
Chuck Colson once said to me, “By age 10, your children’s moral compass is pretty well set.”
His wisdom confirmed what Jean and I already believed from our earliest days of parenting: we only had a few short years to impart biblical wisdom and a love for Jesus to our two boys. It’s a task that we’ve taken seriously ever since. But we also discovered early that “serious” doesn’t have to mean “dull” or “boring.”
Thankfully, there’s no magical “one way” for moms and dads to pass their faith on to their children.
Helen Keller once said, “The only thing worse than blindness is having sight but no vision.”
Scripture says that we lose our way without vision (Proverbs 29:18).
Vision is the ability to focus your attention on God’s plan and his ability to accomplish it. God calls each of us to a vision that is bigger than us. He invites us into things that require the best of us and that will outlive us.
What is that “thing” for you?
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.
