Daly Focus Blog
Remember Goliath? In 1 Samuel, he taunted the Israelites, saying, “Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us” (v.9).
Author Deborah Pegues encourages her readers to imagine their fear as a giant like Goliath. If you overcome it, if you conquer it, your fear will serve you.
CBS Sunday Morning recently ran a story about what they called “conversion therapy” – a vague, broad term used by opponents of professional therapy or spiritual support for those with unwanted homosexuality.
They depicted some pretty extreme and even abusive practices. They also interviewed our staff member Jeff Johnston. Unfortunately, they left out an important detail about his background. Let me allow him to explain:
You’d think that a segment critical of therapy for unwanted homosexual attraction would at least acknowledge there’s another side to the story – especially when one of the people you’re interviewing has a powerful testimony about how counseling for his unwanted same-sex attraction did, in fact, contribute to his journey away from homosexuality.
Genesis says that we were created perfect in the Garden of Eden. Revelation 22 describes the end of the age when God will create a new heaven and new earth, and our perfection will be restored.
Therein lies the rub: Between Eden and eternity, life is filled with disappointment, and we don’t always know how to handle it well. We push disappointment aside. We ignore it. We numb it. We bury it. We doubt God’s love for us.
“For a good time, call HOME!”
That should be a bumper sticker. It’s actually pastor Ted Cunningham’s encouragement to men and women to invest in their marriage.
He says you get out of your relationship what you put into it. That means enjoying life and marriage is a decision – a choice you make – not merely an outcome or something you wait for. Compatibility is something you create by choosing to invest your time and resources into your relationship.
Two days after Jocelyn Green and her husband married, the military relocated them from Washington, D.C. to Alaska. A few weeks later – on their one-month anniversary, in fact – her husband kissed her goodbye and left for deployment.
Military couples can relate to the uncertainty and stress deployment causes. They can also identify with the challenges the Greens faced once they reunited. Jocelyn and her husband expected their reunion to feel like a second honeymoon.
The dust is beginning to settle after yesterday’s historic mid-term election. Politicos and pundits have been analyzing and dissecting the results, some of which are not yet final as ballots continue to be tallied. Earlier today, President Trump conducted a dramatic, combative and at times, explosive press conference from the East Room of the White House where he weighed in on the “split decision” rendered by the American people.
As I mentioned in my initial statement last evening, the outcome included both good news and bad news for Christians concerned about the family, the sanctity of life, religious freedom and free speech.
More than 72,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2017.
Numbers like that are the latest sad statistic from a culture of drug abuse that broke into the open in the 1960s and 1970s. The cost of illegal drugs in terms of crime, lost work productivity, and the impact on the health care system is estimated at $200 billion a year. To that figure, you can add another $80 billion in prescription drugs.
Despite the staggering numbers of traffic deaths, overdoses, and a new generation of “stoners” who would rather get high than pursue productive lives, there’s growing momentum in the United States to legalize drugs.
Can you open your heart to a child who needs a family?
If you answered no, you’re not alone. Many couples wrestle with whether or not they should adopt, or if there’s some other part they should play.
That was how Mike and Kristen Berry’s story began.
Kristen assumed she and Mike would adopt children when they married. Adoption was Kristen’s family legacy. Her grandfather and his brother grew up in the foster care system, but they were never adopted.
Author Jonathan McKee remembers contemplating suicide as a teenager. He was standing on the edge of a cliff, staring all the way to the bottom. One step, and all of his pain would be over.
The pain was caused by incessant bullying. The pinnacle was in eighth grade when a group of classmates started what they called the “Kill John Club.” They made T-shirts with the letters KJC and a caricature of John’s face, complete with enormous buck teeth – a feature braces had fixed, but classmates continued to torment him over – and a gun scope target over his face.
Brad Rhoads didn’t think he had a problem with his marriage. He was putting a lot of energy and creativity into building a law practice. His clients and colleagues all thought he was attentive and engaged.
Not his wife, Marilyn. She thought Brad invested so much of his energy into his work that he had nothing left to invest in his marriage.
There was no affair, no huge blow-up. But Brad had taken his eyes off the Lord and his wife, and their relationship was suffering a slow leak.
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.
