Daly Focus Blog
Author Joe Pellegrino discovered it’s never too late to let your children know you love ‘em. When his son Joey was little, Joe taught him to play baseball. As a challenge, he told Joey, “If you hit the ball over my head, I’ll buy you the Lego pirate ship you’ve been wanting.”
As Joe remembers the story, Joey never hit the ball over his head. Joey remembers the day differently. Over the years, those differences in memory occasionally came up.
No one begins a journey expecting a detour or anticipating tragedy along the way.
Author Rachel Wojo sure didn’t. She came from a great home. Her mom and dad were Christians who believed in working hard and in raising their children to love God and each other.
When Rachel struck out on her own, she married a guy who had his sights set on Bible college and serving as a youth pastor. Five years into their marriage, however, she discovered that he had been having an affair for four of them.
A few months ago, I got a chance to visit with Greta Henry. She’s the director of Living Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center in Champaign, Illinois. She’s also their director of adoptions and oversees their residential program for women called Merci’s Refuge.
She asked me to come and speak at the pregnancy center to almost 1,000 workers and supporters. I was happy for the opportunity to share my heart with people who are so dedicated to standing for life.
I returned from Washington D.C. this past weekend following a series of meetings, media interviews and special ministry sponsored events that culminated with the 46th annual March for Life.
It’s an inspiring experience to stand on the stage and look out over the sea of humanity sprinkled across the National Mall, hundreds of thousands of pro-life stalwarts, many of them young – all of them united in an un-equivocating devotion to working together towards a day when every baby’s life, in every state, is protected under law.
Years ago, while working as a camp counselor, author Craig Jutila floated on a canoe to the center of the lake for a few quiet hours alone. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the water was completely still.
It was after hours, and no other boats were out. So he did the only sensible thing: With an extra life jacket for his pillow, he nestled in for a short nap.
An hour later, he woke up to the voices of strangers.
Imagine your boss asking you to train someone so well that you’d no longer be needed. What would you do? That’s an important question to answer because that’s precisely your role in the life of your child.
As your children grow older, they’ll naturally and progressively seek their own identity apart from you. That path toward independence prepares them for adulthood, but it can be painful for you. It’ll feel like they no longer need you.
Do you watch Tucker Carlson’s show on FOX News?
A few weeks ago, the popular television host offered a bold and pointed commentary on how the decline of marriage and family is driving the majority of the poverty in our nation. (You can watch and read the text here.)
He didn’t so much lay this decline at the feet of declining morals, but poor economic policies perpetuated over the last few decades by the growth of Big Government.
Imagine waking up drenched in sweat, your heart pounding, your legs convulsing. The ER doctor reports that your blood pressure is 190 over 170. You’re convinced you’re having a heart attack, but after chest x-rays and an EKG the doctor says there’s nothing physically wrong with you. His diagnosis: “You’re having an anxiety attack.”
That scenario happened to Pastor Louie Giglio back in 2008. He fell into a pit of darkness, depression, fear, and anxiety so disabling that he thought he might never stand in front of another person to proclaim the truth of God or to serve others again.
Comedian Ken Davis was 65 when he told his audience, “These are some of the best years of my life.”
He wasn’t joking.
He’d been a Christian for years, but it wasn’t until he was older that he’d begun living the truth of Philippians 3:10, where Paul says that he desired “to know Christ and the power of His resurrection.” Christians will experience the fullness of Christ after we die, of course, but Paul reminds us that we can also know the power of God’s resurrection in this life!
There’s good news about bad marriages: No matter how dire your circumstances, there is hope. When a marriage enters dangerous territory, the journey out isn’t easy, but the results can be beautiful.
Dr. David Clarke has a proven 90-day strategy for getting a broken marriage on track toward healing and intimacy. He says healing begins by identifying the type of marriage you’re in:
First is the couple who admits they’re unhappy and struggling, but are willing to work on it.
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.
