Daly Focus Blog
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a record on Monday, closing above 38,000 for the first time ever. Not to be outdone, the S&P 500 also set a new high. How long it lasts is a question and matter left to financial gurus, many of whom disagree.
Tracking the stock market’s performance provides us with an indication of where the economy is, and maybe even where it’s going. Numbers can’t tell us everything, but they can tell us a lot.
Money can be a touchy subject for husbands and wives because most, if not all, of the decisions a couple makes each day involve money.
Do you drink coffee at home or spend extra money at a coffee shop?
What kind of clothing do you buy?
What kind of car do you drive?
Should you pursue a different job?
Should you buy a new house?
Should you spend less or more on groceries?
Even your dreams for the future are impacted by your budget.
When the culture erupts into chaos and violence breaks out in the streets, anger is usually identified as the culprit. We’re told that people get so angry about the economy, about politics, or about injustice that they can’t help but act destructively.
Actually, destructive behavior isn’t the result of angry people, but of people who aren’t in control of their anger. We all get angry, and anger itself can be quite productive. Anger motivated our ancestors to rise up and fight a Revolution for freedom and to put an end to slavery.
Racism is a problem in America. What isn’t so obvious is what to do about it.
I grew up in Compton, California. I’ve seen the ugliness of racism up close. So has Pastor Miles McPherson, who grew up in a black neighborhood but went to school in a white neighborhood. He says he was too dark for white people and too light for black people. He was disrespected and mistreated by both races.
Although race relations have improved over the past few generations, nothing we’ve tried has eradicated it.
Some people believe scientific truth is the only truth, meaning we should only believe in tangible things that we can see and touch.
But truth is more sophisticated than that. Lots of things are true even though we can’t physically touch or observe them. Like our thoughts and ideas. Or what about truth that is so meaningful we need stories to communicate them? Stories in the Bible, for example, are true in a deeply profound way that apply to everyone everywhere in every generation.
Few things in life are as good as we think they are.
Believe it or not, there’s even a scientific term for that phenomenon. It’s called the Better-Than-Average Effect. In short, our tendency is to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to.
We don’t sing as well as we think we do.
We don’t eat or exercise as healthy as we should.
We minimize our addictions.
We downplay our depression.
We believe that our marriages are healthier than they are.
On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Understanding the Goodness of God’s Word,” our guest, author Wendy Speake, is talking about the topic of “feasting” – not on food but on Scripture.
She’s written a great book called The 40-Day Feast: Taste and See the Goodness of God’s Word about how to ingest and savor the Bible and understand God more deeply.
The idea of feasting originated in the Garden of Eden. God’s first command to Adam and Eve was to “eat of every tree of the garden” (Genesis 2:16) except one.
Lee Strobel was an investigative journalist and an atheist who set out to disprove Christianity. Instead, he discovered that the evidence for Christ’s resurrection is “strong, persuasive, powerful and based on a solid foundation of historical truth.”
Years later, in the summer of 2011, Lee was inspired to study evidence for the afterlife when he woke up in an emergency room. His wife Leslie had found him unconscious on the bedroom floor. The doctor told him, “You were one step away from a coma and two steps away from death.”
That experience spurred Lee to better understand why the fear of death drives people toward unhealthy coping mechanisms.
According to the National Science Foundation:
People think an average of 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day.
80% of those thoughts are negative.
And 90% of those thoughts are repetitive.
That’s why author Ted Lowe – founder and director of MarriedPeople.org, an organization dedicated to strengthening marriages – says one of the best things you can do for your marriage is to learn how to change your own mind.
Embracing a positive mindset boosts confidence, wards off depression and anxiety, and helps manage stress.
Despite what you see on commercials, Christmas isn’t about presents or a jolly old man in a red suit. It’s also not about food, festive decorations, or family get-togethers – even though those are all wonderful things. At its core, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus.
His story is the greatest ever told because it empowers us to hold on to our faith in tough times, to believe that a light of hope can still burn bright even when our world seems dark.
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.
