family Archives

Talking to Your Kids About Sexuality and Gender

If you’re the parent of young children, maybe you’ll relate to this scenario.

Amy Davison’s children were watching a cartoon about a girl who had a crush on one of her classmates. Throughout the episode, she put love notes in the classmate’s locker. At the end, when the show revealed that the locker belonged to another girl, Amy’s ten-year-old daughter turned and asked, “Wait, what just happened? Does she like girls?”

And just like that, Amy was forced to have a conversation with her young child about the LGBT world.

Topics: Current Events Tags: family, parenting July 10, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Best Choices You Can Make for Your Marriage

Researchers say that, on average, a person makes 35,000 decisions a day.

Coffee creamer or black?

Get out of bed now or later?

Scratch our head with our left hand or our right?

Answer our phone or not?

We make so many choices that we often don’t recognize that our ability to choose is even involved.

Like this one: loving our spouse.

We talk about love as if it’s an outside force. We say, “It was love at first sight.” Or we “fell in love.” We chalk up love to chance or chemistry instead of a conscious decision to act toward our spouse in loving ways.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, marriage July 7, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Nurturing Fathers

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.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, parenting July 6, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Giving Your Teen Freedom to Become an Adult

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.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, parenting July 5, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Golden Triangle of Freedom

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.

Topics: Current Events Tags: faith, family July 4, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Changing the World Through a Lemonade Stand

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.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, family, parenting July 3, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Creating Mayberry

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.

Topics: Current Events Tags: faith, family June 29, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

To Flourish and Thrive

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.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family June 28, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Cultivating a Healthy Life as a Single

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.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family June 27, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Moms Are Human, Too: Why Self-Care is a Good Thing

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.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, parenting June 26, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura