Daly Focus Blog
Each December and January we re-air a selection of our best-loved broadcasts of the year. It gives our listeners a second chance to listen and benefit from the God-centered, practical marriage and family advice that has become a hallmark of the Focus on the Family broadcast. It also gives our friends an opportunity to recommend a favorite program to a friend.
The next few weeks will be busy for everyone. In order to make things easy for you, I wanted to list the upcoming broadcast schedule.
Has it ever occurred to you that so many traditions of Christmas are actually sterilized versions of historical truth?
There are the lights and decorations; the smell of cookies, pies, and freshly cut Christmas trees; the music of choirs and carolers. The air is filled with the joy of the season.
It’s beautiful imagery that, in almost every way, stands in stark contrast to the dark, difficult circumstances surrounding the very first Christmas.
Case in point, let’s consider the lives of three women who lived it:
Mary, Elizabeth, and Anna.
This time of year is supposed to be the most joyous, but it’s often the most stressful.
A big reason for that is the amount of expectation we pour into the holidays.
Think about it.
We put expectations on ourselves and our family members, and they have expectations for how they want things to go as well. It’s a special time of year, and we want the house to be perfect, the gifts to be perfect, the meals to be perfect.
Thanksgiving is one of the great American holidays, a time dedicated to the deliberate expression of gratitude to the Lord for this country and our many blessings.
If you’re like my wife, Jean, you’ve been shopping and preparing the last few days. Perhaps you’ve cleared your house of extra clutter, wiped the fingerprints off the fridge and aired out the stuffy guest room. The serving platters are out of storage and your overnight guests might even be on their way.
When you think about it, instilling virtue in our children can be pretty serious business. After all, the adult world is a competitive place, and we want our kids to be prepared. And that leads some parents to bury their children under some pretty harsh standards.
At report card time, a parent wanting their child to learn responsibility may question why their nearly straight A student didn’t get that one grade just a little higher. Or maybe they snap at their teenager if he or she shows the slightest sign of irresponsibility.
Forgiveness may be one of the hardest things God asks us to do.
Not so sure? Well, think about Jonah.
Jonah was a prophet of God. His life was devoted to serving the Lord and following His will. But then God said, “Forgive the Ninevites.”
Now, remember who the Ninevites were. They weren’t the innocent-looking people so often portrayed in Sunday school lessons. They were cruel and wicked and enemies of God’s people. It would be the equivalent of God saying to us, “I want you to go to the Middle East to forgive ISIS.”
I’m sure you remember Jonah’s initial response.
Today is Friday the 13th, a day some associate with bad luck. Just saying the phrase brings to mind other (imagined) connections with misfortune, like black cats, broken mirrors and an open umbrella indoors.
While as Christians we should steer clear of these “silly myths,” (1 Tim 4:7) the reality is we have a few “superstitions” we believe, too. Ours might not be rooted in magic or chance, but in a misunderstanding of what Scripture truly teaches.
It’s the type of story that makes parents shudder:
Students exchanging nude photos on their phones.
Members of the Cañon City High School football team here in Colorado allegedly exchanged and collected hundreds of nude photographs of more than 100 students. Some of the students photographed were in middle school. And it seems all of this was part of a competition where points were assigned per picture.
As a colleague remarked, if this type of scandal is occurring in a small town like Cañon City, you know it’s happening all over America.
Is it too early to start thinking about Christmas?
Well, it’s not if you hope to get yourself organized, so you can have a smooth December and enjoy a stress-free Christmas season.
A lot of you can relate. Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, a time when we reflect on our Savior who came as a baby in a manger and soon took upon Himself the sins of the world.
Instead, we get caught up in all the “stuff” of Christmas: the lights, the decorations, the shopping.
Election night 2015 brought victories for religious freedom and common sense.
Last night we saw many encouraging signs from around the country that voters are concerned with issues ranging from religious freedom to the expansion of recreational drug use to the safety and privacy concerns of women and children.
Here are some of the highlights:
First, Houston voters overwhelmingly rejected a controversial city ordinance that would have allowed men suffering from gender confusion to use women’s bathrooms and locker rooms around the city.
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.
