faith Archives

When Change is Inevitable

Author John Maxwell says, “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” He means that we have two choices in life: embrace change and discover new potential, or avoid change and risk stagnation.

An example of the latter is the film company Kodak, once synonymous with photography. For nearly 100 years, the Eastman Kodak Company was the largest film and camera manufacturer in the world. It dominated the industry so completely that memorable snapshots were once referred to as “Kodak moments.”

But change is inevitable.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith September 3, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Transform Your Parenting with These Eight Powerful Tips

What strategies are most effective for raising kids with good character?

We get that question a lot here at Focus on the Family. Our answer is that there is no one size fits all, but one thing is required: intentionality. Setting our families on “auto pilot” and hoping everything turns out okay is not a fruitful parenting approach.

Every Christian parent wants happy and healthy kids who love the Lord and who have a good relationship with their mom and dad.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family September 2, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Probability, Not Promise

One of the greatest challenges a parent can face is an adult child who rejects the values they were taught growing up. It’s tough to watch a child turn away from honesty, kindness and good character in favor of lies, selfishness and unwise choices. You may even wonder where you went wrong as a parent. Let me encourage you with a few ideas:

The first is to recognize that your child’s decisions are not your fault, at least not entirely.

Topics: Uncategorized Tags: faith, family August 27, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Identifying Harmful Patterns to Heal Your Marriage

Have you ever gotten your car stuck, in mud, or like those of us in Colorado, snow? You rock your car back and forth to get traction, but your tires spin, and you get nowhere.

Husbands and wives can get stuck like that. In anger, so you’re always battling each other. Or busyness, so you never have the time or energy to connect. Or maybe like my guests on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, Justin and Trisha Davis, you’re stuck in the saddest rut of all: apathy – you’ve given up and stopped fighting for your marriage.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage August 26, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Navigate Your Differences

Dr. Gary Chapman wrote the book on love. Literally. He’s the author of the best-selling classic The Five Love Languages. But even Dr. Chapman had to learn how to love his wife well. Early on in their marriage, he and his wife Karolyn struggled to navigate their differences. They had such a tough time that at one point they both wondered if they had married the wrong person.

My wife Jean and I experienced something similar.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage August 25, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Reviving the Church to Change the World

“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?” (Luke 14:34).

The dominoes of truth and morality are falling at an alarming speed in our culture. Every day there seems to be another attack upon Christian values and religious freedom. We shouldn’t be surprised. For one thing, Jesus warned us that it would be this way (Matt. 10:22). Also, history tells us that as a culture slides into moral decline, its people turn against the principles upon which that culture is built.

Topics: Current Events Tags: faith August 14, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

President Trump and the Biblical Justification for Government Restraining Evil

President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. comes in the wake of the capital city’s horrific spike in crime.

Despite claims to the contrary, the 68 square miles on the Potomac River bordering Maryland and Virginia hasn’t been a safe place to be for a long time. Anyone who has been there recently can attest to the area’s problems. When it comes to what he sees outside the White House windows and when driving by in his motorcade, President Trump didn’t mince his words.

“[Washington, D.C.] has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people, and we’re not going to let it happen anymore,” declared Mr.

Topics: Uncategorized Tags: faith August 12, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Say This, Not That: Smart Parenting Tips for Misbehavior

Have you ever:

Regretted something you said to your child in the heat of a conflict?

Or wished you’d spoken in a different tone?

Or repeated for the hundredth time this month, “Why don’t you listen to me?” or “When will you ever learn?”

We parents are busy, stressed, and pulled in a lot of directions and don’t always handle circumstances in just the right way.

According to authors Amber Lia and Wendy Speake, these stumbles occur because we’re not intentional about how we respond in a crisis.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, parenting August 12, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Finding Hope and Healing from Trauma

Every day Focus on the Family hears from good people who have faced difficult, even tragic, life circumstances, people who feel haunted by disturbing memories and who endure life with a sense of agony and desperation.

According to statistics, more people today are exposed to traumatic circumstances than past generations:

Over two-thirds of people experience a traumatic event by the age of 16 years old.

More than 70% of people report experiencing at least one traumatic event in their lifetime.

Topics: Uncategorized Tags: faith August 5, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Meet Your Neighbors

Life is busy. For everybody. We spend so much time away from our homes that we never meet our neighbors. We pull into our garages and close the door behind us. That’s too bad because life is better when it’s lived in community.

A lovely example of that went viral on social media. It featured 87-year-old Doug Turner, a widower, who rang his neighbor Michelle’s doorbell one winter morning. She had only lived in the neighborhood for a few months, but she recognized Mr.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith August 4, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura