Daly Focus Blog
I’ve known a lot of guys who think nurturing children is mom’s job, not dad’s. Fatherhood should be about strength, they say.
I agree, but instead of picturing a bouquet of flowers, picture a mighty oak tree. It’s the tree’s strength that allows it to provide and protect and nurture the wildlife around it.
That’s fatherhood. Nurturing dads have strong character, but a gentle spirit that enables them to handle discipline issues without criticizing or being harsh.
When should a parent decide, “My child is old enough to live completely free of my influence”?
By the way, “Never!” is not a good answer.
Children on their way to adulthood have always struggled for independence against their parents. What’s changed is how parents view childhood between the ages of 13 and 20.
The concept of “adolescence” has only been around for 100 years or so. The terms “adolescent” and “teenager” were first used around 1941.
America has functioned remarkably well for over 200 years.
Much of that success can be attributed to what historians call the “Golden Triangle of Freedom.” The three points of the triangle are:
Liberty.
Virtue.
Faith.
The relationship between the three is important. Each one relies on the other for its existence and well-being. Liberty requires virtue. Virtue requires faith. Faith requires liberty.
Liberty is freedom. It’s the ability to govern oneself. That means you’re free to choose your own path so long as what you do positively benefits everyone else in the community.
There are 150 million orphans in the world.
Every six seconds a child dies because they don’t have access to food or water.
What are you going to do about it?
That’s a daunting question, isn’t it? The scale of poverty in the world is so overwhelming that we feel paralyzed … and do nothing.
I suggest a change in perspective. No, you can’t fix the world’s problems. But you can do good right where you are.
At some point, we’ve all wished that we could live in a place like Mayberry, the small North Carolina town from the Andy Griffith Show. And why not? We’d have neighbors like Barney Fife, Floyd the Barber, and Aunt Bea. Imagine waking up every day in a community where everyone was sweet and thoughtful to each other and where things rarely got out of hand. Even Otis*, Mayberry’s town drunk, was entrusted with his own key to the jail so he could let himself in and out every night.
The sexual revolution that began in the 1960s has taught us more about the need for good boundaries than any other time in history.
When the birth control pill first became available, the response was a cultural pendulum swing labelled “free love” where men and women were encouraged to cast off all moral restraint. Boundaries that once governed sexual promiscuity essentially vanished.
The sexual revolution assured us that we could do whatever we wanted with whomever we wanted whenever we wanted with no consequences.
If you thread two keys onto a single key ring, is either key more complete after it is joined with the other?
No.
And neither will you be if you’re single and hoping to be married one day.
“Singlehood” is often synonymous with “incomplete.” But Adam and Eve weren’t created as a couple. God created Adam first, as a single, an individual. He was given a purpose in God’s creation prior to Eve becoming his wife.
I can’t say it enough. Moms have on of the hardest jobs in the world!
I think the Lord created women with maternal instincts that drive them to serve and sacrifice everything they have for the sake of their families. My own mom cared for five children, worked two jobs, and tried to meet everybody’s needs the best way she knew how. We didn’t have much, but we were happy.
Unfortunately, it’s easy for moms to take on too many responsibilities – and neglect themselves in the process.
Does your marriage stress you out?
Are you bringing stress into your marriage?
Either way, how do you handle it?
Many couples seek stress relief in non-relational ways that enable them to hide from each other. Drugs and alcohol. Shopping. Gambling. Excessive cleaning. Binge-watching television or social media.
We retreat.
We shut down.
We become silent and non-communicative.
Jesus faced stress. Luke 22:44 says, “Being in agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Matthew 26:37 says Jesus was “sorrowful and troubled.”
Jesus modeled how to seek stress relief through relationship.
Do you feel like your daughter is growing up too fast?
Believe it or not, it may be true. In fact, that conversation about puberty you assumed was still a few years off may be needed sooner than you think.
There’s some debate about why it’s happening, but there’s no question that puberty is occurring earlier and earlier in girls. For some, it could be as young as seven or eight! Puberty brings about big changes in a girl’s physical development and body image, and that can be scary if she isn’t prepared for what’s coming.
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.
