Daly Focus Blog
A couple of months ago your schedule was probably a lot like mine: full. The faucet was all the way open, and there wasn’t much free time between work, family, marriage, church, school activities, music recitals, and sports practice.
Then, all of that ground to a halt. Overnight. And just like that your entire family was at home together, not for a few hours or a few days, but for weeks. Maybe at some point you even awoke to your own personal Groundhog Day.
If you’re out of work and watching your savings disappear, or you’re wondering if, how, and when the economy will recover, join us for our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Managing Money Well During a Crisis.”
Michelle Singletary is our guest. She’s a financial columnist for The Washington Post and the author of a book called The 21-Day Financial Fast: Your Path to Financial Peace and Freedom. Everyone’s financial situation is unique, but she has some great ideas for your family to protect your bottom line and to navigate a crisis with faith instead of fear.
Remember Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, David’s giant nemesis who challenged the entire Israelite army to a fight? He was nearly ten feet tall. His armor weighed 150 pounds, and his spear weighed nearly 30 pounds.
David was a shepherd boy. A teenager. Yet when he heard Goliath’s taunts, he didn’t run and hide in fear. He said, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” Then he stared Goliath down and trusted God for victory.
By: Christy Cabe
I remember the somber voices singing at my mother’s funeral.
I sat beside my dad, near the front of the church, as the crowd behind us led and echoed the chorus of the hymn “It Is Well.”
It Is Well
It Is Well
With My Soul
With My Soul
And though I was a child, a fifth-grade girl sitting in shock and grief near her mother’s casket, I understood.
Deep down, I knew it was true.
Fear over the
coronavirus continues to grip people. I have a family member who calls my wife
every few days expressing her uncertainty about where our country goes from
here and how we protect ourselves. Her concerns are not unreasonable, but it’s
clear that her questions are driven by fear and anxiety.
Fear is
contagious, and children are especially susceptible. So are Christian moms and
dads who wish to instill their children with faith.
What can
you do?
If you’re like most parents with students in the home, the coronavirus pandemic has thrown a real wrench in academic plans – not just for the last two months but even looking ahead to the prospect of summer camps and other nontraditional instruction.
For the last 57 years, our friends over at Summit Ministries in Manitou Springs– led by Jeff Myers – have been helping to equip high school and college students during the summer months to become next generation leaders.
I’m happy
to say that Focus on the Family has been ahead of the technology curve, which
has allowed most of our staff to work from home and continue to minister to
families. But just like you, our staff has had to navigate the uncertain waters
of balancing work and home.
That’s why
we invited popular guest Arlene Pellicane to join us on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Balancing Work and Family Life While Staying
at Home.” She’s got some
great ideas for dealing with what she calls a “blurred environment.” The
boundaries between work and family blur, which makes it harder to keep all the
plates spinning – to be a good spouse, a good parent, perhaps even a good son
or daughter to elderly parents.
This is a sad story – with a sweet and poignant twist.
As most of us slept peacefully on Tuesday night, Jon Coelho of Danbury, Connecticut, passed away from cardiac arrest, a condition attributed to the coronavirus.
He was just 32 years-old and left behind his wife, Katie, and 2 small children.
There’s a common saying that death always comes like a thief in the night, and never more so than when a younger person unexpectedly meets the end of their earthly life.
John Burke
was an agnostic. He didn’t know if there was a God or if the afterlife was real.
The closest he got to spirituality was believing that Jesus was a good teacher
whose life somehow became the stuff of legend and myth.
Then John’s
dad got cancer, and John began to wonder more deeply about life’s big
questions. During that time, someone gave his father a book of original
research that coined the term “near-death experience.” When John read people’s
stories about bright lights, tunnels, and strange visions, it set him on what
became a 35-year quest to examine those experiences more deeply.
The coronavirus pandemic has been very bad for many things – but it has given many parents – myself included – extra time to talk with their children.
Just the other day, I was chatting with one of our sons and a tender subject came up.
It involved the sudden and unexpected death of one of his friends. We’ve talked about it in the past and even prayed and grieved over it as a family, but we’ve probably never discussed it as deeply or as meaningfully as we did this time around.
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.
