faith Archives

Understanding and Overcoming Trauma

Research shows an estimated 70% of adults in the United States have experienced a traumatic event at least once in their lives. Trauma can range from divorce to abuse to a global pandemic – something we all experienced. Even everyday stress has a cumulative effect.

Dr. Gregory Jantz is founder of The Center: A Place of Hope in Edmonds, Washington, a renowned treatment center for depression. He says when his clinic opened years ago, he “didn’t fully understand that most ailments and afflictions people deal with can be traced back to trauma of some kind.

Topics: Current Events Tags: faith September 11, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Finding Peace in Your Everyday Life

One busy weekday morning, author Kay Wyma was backing out of her driveway when a big truck came barreling down the road and forced her to the shoulder. Frustrated and annoyed, she took a deep breath, slowed her heart rate, and realized that she had a choice to make: she could wallow in her anger and frustration, or she could be thankful that no one, including herself, had been injured.

She chose the latter. The moment she did, Kay felt compassion for the truck driver instead of condemnation.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family September 9, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Living with Contagious Joy in Christ

It’s easy – even for Christians – to develop a negative attitude about the world. We can feel concerned and discouraged about many things – corruption in government, injustice, poverty, war, abortion.

Author Brant Hansen knows the struggle with anxiety all too well. His dad was a pastor whose hypocritical behavior and affair tore his family apart. It was a frightening and dark time for Brant, his brother, and his mother, who were forced to give up all they had and move into a small house.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family August 28, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Team Hoyt

One of the most inspiring parenting stories I’ve heard is about father and son, Dick and Rick Hoyt. Rick, the son, was born with cerebral palsy in 1962. Doctors said Rick would bring nothing but pain and suggested that he be institutionalized. Instead, his parents, Dick and Judy, devoted their lives to their son for nearly 60 years.

In fact, Dick was so determined to build a relationship with Rick that he ran marathons with him.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family August 27, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Restoring Hope to Your Marriage

Ron and Opal Erickson call themselves “musicianaires.” Ron is an accomplished steel guitarist, and Opal is an accomplished vocalist. They’ve made beautiful music together for over 40 years, not only as musicians but as a couple.

But they only achieved that because they’ve rebuilt their marriage out of the rubble of a relationship that seemed irreparably broken. Through God’s grace and wisdom, they survived adultery, rejection, and betrayal and created a new marriage forged in trust, love, and grace.

Topics: Current Events Tags: faith, marriage August 26, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Simple Ways to Organize Your Home and Family

Are you “organizationally challenged”?

Keeping a house tidy and organized is a challenge for a lot of us, especially those of us who have young children. It’s like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos. When children are older, they can participate in house cleaning and common tasks like laundry and dishes, but what’s the best way to get them involved?

With me on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly is Kristi Clover. She’s a home organization expert and a mom of five kids ranging from preschool to young adults.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family August 23, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Simple Steps to Improve Your Marriage

Could you use a simple tip to improve your marriage?

How about 100 simple tips?

Matt and Lisa Jacobson, my guests on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, actually have them for you.

After 25 years of marriage, Matt and Lisa looked at each other one day and decided, “Let’s each write down one hundred things that we’ve done to create a loving marriage.” When they compared notes, they realized that each day is the culmination of little decisions that stack up over time.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family August 22, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Vision for Who They’ll Become

The most effective parents are visionaries.

Let me tell you about Tom. As a young boy, he developed a hearing problem. It caused him a lot of trouble at school. Tom’s mind constantly wandered, making him disruptive in class, which frustrated his teachers. They considered him “stupid, restless, and a slow learner who asked too many questions.” All in all, his public education was a complete failure.

If that were your son, I’m sure you’d be concerned.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family August 20, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Deepening Your Relationship with Thoughtful Conversation

Thanks to the Internet and social media, we’re more connected to each other than ever. At least, we like to think we are. The fact of the matter is quite different.

Just a few years ago, only ten percent of Americans said they were lonely. According to recent research, that number has nearly doubled. The very technology we thought would draw us closer together is making us feel more isolated instead.

Our need for human connection is wired into our DNA.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family August 19, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What’s Your Excuse?

What holds you back from achieving more than you do? Money? Time? How about excuses?

If anybody had a reason to make excuses, it was Paul Richard Alexander. As a child, polio paralyzed him and severely damaged his respiratory system. From age six until he died at 78, Paul was confined to a machine called an iron lung – a medical contraption that enabled him to breathe.

The machine kept Paul alive. but it also imprisoned him.

Topics: Current Events Tags: faith August 16, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura