Daly Focus Blog
Chocolate was a symbol of how bad Sandy and Tom’s marriage had become.
They were in a drive-thru ordering food, and Sandy asked for a chocolate shake. Tom said “no” and forced her to reorder. Vanilla, he believed, was the better choice. He was convinced chocolate would make her face break out and cause her to gain weight.
Tom didn’t realize it at the time, but the problem wasn’t chocolate, it was control. To get the marriage he was after, Tom thought he had to rule with an iron fist.
The percentages are hard to know for sure, but research indicates that 50 percent or more of all women feel lonely.
Dr. Joneal Kirby points to several reasons why those numbers are so high. For one, social media has caused an increase in superficial relationships. Some women have dozens of friends on Facebook, but very few with whom they can talk face-to-face. They don’t meet for coffee with anyone, and they have no one with whom they can get beneath the surface, share their hearts, and “do life.”
Women are also busier than ever.
Terrie and Cal’s son is 38. Their oldest daughter is 34. Abbey, their youngest, is 12.
That’s right – 12.
How did that happen? Well, it’s quite a story. It’s something of a miracle, too. Not a medical miracle, but the sort of miracle made possible by adoption.
Before she stepped into Terrie and Cal’s lives, Abbey was removed from her biological mother at a young age, then cycled through a revolving door of adoptive families, foster parents, and residential treatment centers for adolescents.
News outlets and social media have been erupting over issues of racial inequality. There are protests online, protests in the streets, and symbolic protests during the national anthem at NFL games.
Benjamin Watson has a unique perspective on those matters. He’s an African-American, and he plays professional football. He was on our Focus on the Family Broadcast a few weeks ago challenging men to step up in their support of their wives and to be passionate about helping them to be great mothers.
Mom and Dad, are you a tug boat or a rudder?
You can tell by the way you motivate your children. Tug boat parents pull their children through the water to get them going the right direction. Rudder parents steer them in the way they should go.
We’re all tug boats from time to time. I know I’ve grabbed the rope and started to pull when one of my boys hasn’t made a good decision. That urge to force them in the right direction usually plays upon my concern for their health and well-being.
Proverbs 19:15 says, “Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger” (ESV).
Second Thessalonians 3:10 says, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (ESV).
Those Scriptures and others warn us against laziness. God expects us to work and blesses us through it.
Some of us overcorrect and swing to the other extreme. The busier the better.
If “idle hands are the devil’s workshop” then busyness is his playground.
What do you do when you’re at the top of the world one minute and scraping the bottom of the barrel the next?
Former major league pitcher Brian Holman has had to answer that very question … many times.
In 1999, his son David fell thirty feet from a ski-lift and suffered multiple severe injuries. When he got to the hospital, doctors ran an MRI and discovered David had a brain tumor. They successfully removed it, but David had a post-surgical stroke and needed extensive rehab to recover.
Do you know the significance of a man named Martin Luther?
If the first thing that comes to mind is the “I Have a Dream” speech, you’re thinking of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
That’s a common mistake. Martin Luther isn’t exactly a household name to some, but he is an influential figure in world history. In fact, some say he’s as historically relevant as Abraham Lincoln or Julius Caesar. Yet, most Christians know very little about him – or nothing at all.
A young man named Billy Riley was in a philosophy program at a small liberal arts college in western Pennsylvania. His Human Origins class offered some of the greatest challenges a Christian student could ever face. Not only was he confronted with opposing worldviews, but his professor was biased in his teaching approach.
Billy was mature enough in his faith that he befriended the professor. They had great conversations and vigorous debate after each class. They eventually put together a school symposium on the existence of God.
You may have heard that the founder of Playboy magazine, Hugh Hefner, died last night at the age of 91. I want to share with you my statement to the media on his passing:
“The death of Hugh Hefner has elicited tributes of many kinds, including that he was a pioneer who liberated the sexual frustrations of a culture. In reality, his efforts and entrepreneurial pursuits helped enslave generations of both women and men.
“Pornography corrupts what God created for enjoyment within marriage and objectifies the gift of our sexuality.
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.
