Daly Focus Blog
Dr. Kevin Leman humorously says of children, “We have seen the enemy, and they are small. They’re unionized. The ‘ankle-biter battalion’ is on the move, so you better have a game plan.”
I’m sure many parents would heartily agree with that assessment. To that end, Dr. Leman is with us on our program “Game Plan for Raising Well-Behaved Children” to share a wealth of practical tips that can bring order to the chaos in your home more quickly than you might think possible.
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis created Aslan, a great lion who ruled Narnia. Susan, a little girl who stumbles into the enchanted world through a magic wardrobe, asks Mr. Beaver if Aslan is safe.
“Safe?” Mr. Beaver replies. “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King.”
God, whom Aslan symbolizes, isn’t safe, either. He has a “wildness” that we find unsettling. We prefer to think of God in terms we can more easily define, understand … or control.
Do you ever waste time with your spouse?
That may seem like an odd question. But your answer will get to the heart of what your relationship with your spouse is all about.
You see, some couples don’t do too well with “wasting” time with one another. Simply being together with no particular agenda and nothing to focus their attention on except their spouse is uncomfortable.
In other words, they have a hard time with intimacy.
Are you a fan of the predictably poignant but proudly and admittedly syrupy and sappy Hallmark Christmas movies?
The Hallmark Hall of Fame franchise, which dates back to 1951, is the longest running prime time series in television history. Although the specials have evolved over the years, the concept of using feel-good entertainment to market a company’s products has to go down as one of the most brilliant moves in the history of retail sales promotion.
When should parents say, “My child is old enough to be completely free as an adult”?
By the way, “Never!” is not a good answer.
It’s worth thinking through when your job is done as a parent. Your answers will guide you in how you approach raising your kids.
Children on their way to adulthood have always struggled against their parents. And parents have always wondered, “Have I done everything I could to prepare my child for adulthood?
Alexandra Kuykendall knew she had to do Christmas differently.
Her job required a significant amount of her time, and her children and husband wanted a good chunk of the rest. Add to that visitors who were staying in her home and the usual accoutrements of Christmas – food, gifts, decorations, etc. – and she was overwhelmed.
After the holidays, even a non-committal, “Fine,” felt like a lie when friends and co-workers asked her, “How was your Christmas?”
She encountered something all of us go through at one time or another at Christmas.
It’s easy to forget the origins of the holidays we celebrate. For a lot of people, Thanksgiving is about family, football, and pumpkin pie.
That’s all good stuff. But it’s also good to remind ourselves of the true origin of Thanksgiving and to remember how grateful we should be to live in a nation that has been immeasurably blessed by God.
While you’re fixing your Thanksgiving feast today, or heading over to Grandma’s in the car, tune into our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Remembering the Pilgrims’ Journey.”
Professor Jay Milbrandt, a professor at Bethel University in Minnesota, is with us to peel back the layers of history and get us back to what the first Thanksgiving was all about.
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.
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.
