Daly Focus Blog
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know I enjoy highlighting the abundance of research that pops up in support of families. The reason is simple: Well-designed studies affirm again and again that God’s blueprint for healthy families can be trusted, regardless of which way the winds of culture may blow.
Take, for example, a recent article by Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Executive Director and Senior Fellow at Concerned Women for America’s Beverly LaHaye Institute.
Summer is officially here, and along with it traditionally comes a season when many families take time to vacation and be together to rest, regroup and have some fun.
I say “traditionally” because such vacations may be becoming increasingly rare.
There are no legally mandated paid holidays in the United States, but many businesses and organizations do offer their workers paid time off as part of their compensation package.
However, do you know that Americans leave as many as 175 million available vacation days unused in the typical year?
A new school year is just around the corner, and you know what that means:
The annual hunt for school supplies.
Did you know preparing for school in the fall is, on average, a family’s second largest expenditure each year, outranked only by Christmas?
Maybe that comes as a surprise to you, but I’m sure this won’t: The time and cost required of parents to get their kids ready for a new school year can not only put a strain on their wallet, but on their marriage.
We talk a lot in the church about God’s design for marriage. And rightly so.
But what often gets overlooked is His purpose and work in the life of singles.
Some Christians feel called to be single. Many others yearn for marriage, but for various reasons, struggle to find that kind of meaningful relationship. When months and years tick by, and that deep, heartfelt desire for connection remains unfulfilled, disappointment and frustration can set in. That can pose a serious challenge to a person’s faith, and sincere questions often emerge.
Are you busy? Silly question, right? Who isn’t?
Everybody seems to be racing from one place to another and scrambling to get the next thing on their to-do list checked off. And, really, that isn’t all bad. From work to responsibilities at home, I’m sure the activities that fill most people’s days are pretty important.
But even good things can have their drawbacks.
Ever read your kids a bedtime story when your mind is still at work?
Isn’t summer great? It’s the season for family vacations, blooming flowers, patriotic celebrations, and best of all – weddings. June, July, and August continue to be the most popular months to get married.
Maybe you’re like me in that whenever I have the privilege of witnessing a man and a woman exchange vows, I can’t help but wonder what their future holds. Will their love gradually deepen? What challenges will they face? Where will they be in five, ten, or fifty years?
A lot of people assume it’s their circumstances that determine their attitude. But that’s really not the case. It’s actually quite the opposite.
Let me tell you about Christy and Debra. I think their stories illustrate the point well.
Christy is in her thirties. She’s college educated and ambitious, but with the economy struggling, she started cleaning houses to make ends meet. One of her daily tasks is scrubbing toilets. She hates it. From her view, she deserves better.
Today’s post comes courtesy of Glenn Stanton, Focus on the Family’s director of Family Formation Studies.
A new study from the University of Melbourne in Australia on how kids from same-sex homes fare is getting a good deal of press. Perhaps you’ve seen the news stories and wondered if this changes the nature of the debate over the importance of the family?
It does not.
This new study gives the same kind of findings we’ve seen before, coming from the same kinds of studies with the same kinds of serious short-comings and method problems.
Life just keeps moving faster and faster for all of us.
With jobs and kids and all that goes into running a household, daily life can be difficult to balance.
Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to make that task a little easier.
The first idea comes from my friend and former Focus board member, Al Mohler. Like most of us, he leads a busy life. And it was busy in the early years of his family as well.
I often hear from folks who want to reprioritize their lives. They just don’t know how.
I get it.
The world is moving faster and growing more hectic for all of us. It’s easy to feel pressured to do it all. From our jobs and the bills to school plays and soccer practice, everything seems important. But all that busyness leaves us with crumbs of time to scrape together for family and friends, and, yes, even God.
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.
