Daly Focus Blog
“It’s Not About the Nail” is a short video that’s been making the rounds. It takes a humorous look at the differences in how men and women communicate – and if you’ve been married for at least five minutes, you can probably relate to what the couple in the clip is going through.
Take a look:
The video works because it hits on themes and tendencies that are true. It’s the classic tug-of-war between husbands and wives, something we hear about a lot at Focus on the Family.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, marriage, wife by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
Romantic movie or story plots are often predictable. Boy meets girl. Boy woos girl, and then something happens – a fight, a misunderstanding or a disaster – that tears the would-be couple apart. Ultimately, though, the boy and girl make it back together, and “they lived happily ever after.”
However, those of us who are married know that the real love story takes place after the wedding. Meeting and falling in love are just small parts of the big picture.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, marriage, wife by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
You’ve probably heard of Gabrielle “Gabby” Reece, a former Women’s Beach Volleyball League star. But you may not be aware that her marriage was headed for divorce, when, as she calls it, “an old fashioned dynamic” mended the relationship. According to this volleyball star’s critics, the dynamic that saved her marriage set back women’s causes 50 years.
What could she have possibly said to provoke such a strong reaction?
All it took was one line from her newest book: “To be truly feminine means being soft, receptive, and – look out, here it comes – submissive.”
After sharing this perspective on national TV in April, Reece swiftly came under fire.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, marriage, news, wife by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
The May edition of Reader’s Digest features a breezy article titled “Is Your Marriage Normal or Nuts?”
Don’t answer just yet.
But within the piece is a short list detailing eight lessons from the “World’s Happiest Couples.” I’d like to share them with you and ask if you might add to it:
1. Kindness Helps
74 percent of couples who said they were happy give each other back rubs.
2. It’s Not Necessarily about the Looks
20 percent of the happiest partners say they’re not physically attracted to their spouse.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, intimacy, marriage, wife by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
A fascinating article from the Daily Mail in London landed in my in-box earlier this week. Here was the headline:
Rise of the happy housewife: How a new wave of feminists are giving up their careers to stay at home because they WANT to
The article details a growing trend among women who, though raised by two working parents, have decided they want to give their own children what they didn’t enjoy as a child:
A stay-at-home mother.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, marriage, parenting, wife by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
We’ve all heard the warnings about “dredging up the past” when dealing with challenges in our marriage. But there are times, I think, when a little dredging is just what your relationship needs.
Morehead City, North Carolina, is home to one of the deepest ports on the East Coast. It’s a vital passageway for commercial and military ships. But the port developed a serious problem when Hurricane Sandy deposited sand in the channel — and lots of it!
Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, marriage, wife by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
A colleague recently shared with me about a medical situation her father once encountered. He suffered a transient ischemic attack (TIA) – commonly known as a mini-stroke. Her parents live far away, and she was on a video call with her dad when it happened.
All of a sudden, Dad kept asking me what day and what year it was. He kept asking when my children were born. “Wait a second,” he’d say… “I’m confused.”
After a couple of minutes of this, I asked Dad to put Mom (who was in the other room) on the phone.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, husband, sex, wife by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
Clovis Chappell, a minister from a century back, used to tell the story of two paddleboats. They left Memphis about the same time, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, sailors from one vessel made a few remarks about the snail’s pace of the other.
Words were exchanged.
Challenges were made.
And the race began. Competition became vicious as the two boats roared through the Deep South.
One boat began falling behind.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, husband, kids, wife by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
I just came across a story about a controversial study that was featured on NBC’s Today Show.
Here is an excerpt:
Heterosexual married men who spend their time doing yard work, paying bills and changing the oil have more sex than husbands who spend their time cooking, cleaning and shopping, according to a new study on the subject of housework and sex.
From the study:
“Households with a more traditional gender division of labor report higher sexual frequency than households with less traditional gender divisions of labor,” says Sabino Kornrich, lead author of a study that appears in the February issue of the American Sociological Review.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, husband by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
There’s an essay that caught my attention on Foxnews.com this morning. It’s written by a woman named Marina Pearson. According to her byline she’s a writer and speaker whose career is dedicated to helping women “who are struggling to get over their ex to move on in a safe and nurturing environment.”
Her article is bluntly titled: “Why I Cheated on My Husband.”
That would be “ex-husband,” now. But what were the reasons? According to Ms.
Topics: Family and Home Tags: husband, marriage, wife by Jim Daly with Paul Batura
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.