Daly Focus Blog
Do you have a daughter who’s a “crushaholic”? That term describes a young lady who is constantly seeking affirmation from boys.
I don’t have daughters myself, but I do have two boys Trent and Troy, so Jean and I are seeing the upheaval of the teen years up close. The physical, mental, and emotional changes can be intense.
Did I mention the emotional changes?
They can be especially pronounced in girls who tend to be emotional creatures by nature, more so than boys.
Monday’s headlines were full of good news from the box office:
Unplanned, the powerful abortion-themed movie featuring Focus author and former Planned Parenthood director, Abby Johnson, grossed $6.1 million – more than doubling expectations. It was the second-largest launch for the Christian filmmaker Pure Flix, tracking only behind their hit, God’s Not Dead 2 ($7.6 million).
Industry experts were shocked at the NEW film’s popularity. In response to its strong opening weekend, an additional 700 theaters will now be showing the film.
“I struggle with food.”
That statement resonates with millions of men and women. Maintaining a healthy relationship with food can be difficult for physiological, mental and spiritual reasons.
God designed food for function and for pleasure. Hunger compels us to eat, which sustains our lives, but God also created us with the ability to enjoy flavors, textures, and the experience of eating itself (Ecclesiastes 3:13).
The trouble is, that beautiful gift can get twisted. Research is confirming that certain foods and additives can have the same addictive effect as drugs, which causes us to continue to feel hungry even though we’ve already eaten.
Abby Johnson was an abortion clinic director for Planned Parenthood for eight years. She considered herself a Christian and believed she was helping women. But her heart was conflicted. As she described it, “I facilitated abortions on Saturday, and sat in a pew on Sunday.”
She was able to rationalize that dichotomy, in part, through Planned Parenthood’s skewed perspective. They never talk about the baby. Their focus is, and always has been, the woman. In fact, Abby was instructed never to refer to the baby at all.
Chick-fil-A (CFA), a frequent target of liberal ire, is once more on the receiving end of the charge of homophobia because its charitable arm, the Chick-fil-A Foundation has recently donated to three Christian ministries, including the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), and a Georgia boys’ home, all of whose youth programs the CFA Foundation was interested in supporting.
Everyone knows who the Salvation Army is and the good they have done for the poor and needy around the world for over 150 years.
You can’t change your spouse.
Period.
So what do you do if your marriage is in a desperate place?
Many couples believe there are only two choices: “I can stay here and be miserable for the rest of my life, or I can get out of this and hope that I’ll find happiness somewhere else down the line.”
Dr. Gary Chapman says that’s a myth. There’s a third option: “With God’s help and with godly counsel from others, I can choose to positively influence my marriage in such a way that it creates the greatest possibility for my spouse to choose to change their behavior.”
The idea that you can change your spouse is a myth.
Trevor Hendershot is quite a young man. I think you’d like meeting him.
Cheerleaders in his high school once made banners to cheer him on, and he was so popular he was voted homecoming king. He was a little quirky, too. He had a habit of loudly singing Christian songs in the hallway before, during, and after school. He gave everyone he talked to a high-five, a hug, or a fist bump.
He’s now in his mid-20’s and works for the Los Angeles Angels, a Major League Baseball franchise.
Did you know that researchers can predict with almost 95-percent accuracy whether a couple’s marriage will succeed or fail?
Their predictions are based on how a couple fights – not how frequently the couple fights or even what they fight about, but howcouples engage each other in conflict.
Researchers discovered four elements to marital conflict that are destructive to a relationship. Dr. John Gottman calls them “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” They are:
Criticism
Defensiveness
Contempt
Stonewalling
Wouldn’t it be great if couples could avoid the Four Horsemen and use conflict to invigorate their marriage rather than allowing it to burn up their love life?
Author Tricia Goyer says she never thought she had an anger problem … until she had to deal with children who had anger problems. She and her husband had three kids of their own and adopted seven others.
Their adopted children had emotions that Tricia didn’t know how to handle. They struggled with pain from their past. They were angry from being away from their biological families. Some of them had faced difficulties in foster care.
Has one of your children ever thrown a world-class fit in a store?
My son Trent did that once when he was little. He wanted a candy bar while he was with his mom in the checkout aisle. I was out of town, so Jean was alone with him. Trent had a meltdown because he couldn’t have the chocolate he was after.
Jean was a new mom and was embarrassed that she couldn’t get Trent under control.
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.
