What’s your favorite song?

One reason it’s probably your favorite is because you enjoy hearing the vocals of the lead singer. But more than you realize, another cast of characters is just as important as the lead: the backing singers. Their chorus of voices harmonize with the lead and give the song a beauty, richness, and texture the main vocalist could never achieve alone.

What if every marriage had backing singers? Imagine a church where every follower of Jesus served as a backing singer to someone’s marriage – a chorus of voices uniting to strengthen the marriages of everyone around them.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage July 26, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Before Bob Kraning died in April 2020, he and his wife Carol were married for over sixty years. When it comes to enjoying a happy relationship, you might say that they had a lifetime of experience.

Whenever I hear about a couple like that, I can’t help but wonder, “What’s their secret?”

Bob provides answers in a recorded message we’re airing on our Focus on the Family Broadcast called “Twenty-Five Years and Still in Love.” Bob’s and Carol’s “secrets” are actually timeless truths available to all of us.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage July 21, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

You thought you married the perfect person. Then, over time, you began to notice flaws. Your spouse wasn’t as kind and loving as they used to be. Now you fight with each other, you blame each other, and you never really discuss tough issues because that leads to more conflict. You wonder if you made a mistake.

What if there’s something deeper going on? Is it possible that Satan is attacking your marriage and you’re experiencing spiritual warfare?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage July 9, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Darrell Waltrip was one of the most successful drivers on the NASCAR circuit in the 1980s.

Together, he and his wife, Stevie, are chairpersons for Motor Racing Outreach, a Christian organization that holds chapel services for the drivers, crews, and their families. They also distribute Christian literature and offer other support for those in the NASCAR community. I appreciate the work they perform at NASCAR tracks on weekends.

I got the opportunity to speak with Darrell and Stevie on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Marriage in the Stressful World of NASCAR.” We recorded at the Darrell Waltrip Museum in front of a live audience of Focus friends right before a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage June 30, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Matt Hammit was the lead singer of the Christian rock band Sanctus Real for 20 years. In the early years of the band, performing at a music festival, he noticed a beautiful girl in overalls dancing like no one was watching. The next day, at another worship event over three hours away, he saw her again.

Her name was Sarah. Raised in a Christian home, she became a “party girl” in college. When she saw Matt onstage at the music festival leading worship, she felt drawn to him and prayed, “God, I’ll quit drinking if you let me marry that guy.” They began dating and quickly fell in love.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage June 21, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What “season” is it for your marriage? Is it summer because things are warm and sizzling with your spouse? Or is it winter because things feel a little chilly?

I remember how it felt when Jean and I fell in love. Like many couples in a new relationship, we enjoyed being together every chance we could, and daydreamed about seeing each other when we couldn’t. It was easy to think, “We’ll always feel this way!”

But relationships are like the weather; they change.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage June 15, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

“It’s just like an American to think you invented the family.”

That’s what Dr. Lilian Wahomey, a psychologist in Kenya, jokingly said to me over lunch one day. I met with her almost 25 years ago to explore ways Focus on the Family could come alongside families in Africa.

I asked, “Do you think a focus on marriage and parenting is be relevant in this part of the world?”

With a friendly smile, she reminded me that the core needs of marriages and families transcend language, culture, nationality, and socio-economic status.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage June 10, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

“For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother, be united to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.”

That verse, Genesis 2:24, is usually referred to in the context of marriage. But Pastor Ted Cunningham pointed out to me that it actually begins as an observation about parenting.

The verse declares that a man will leave his father and mother. It assumes that our children will leave home as adults, not as children who must then set out on a journey to become grownups on their own.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage June 4, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

For a stronger marriage, ask yourself, “What’s my EQ?”

While your IQ is a measure of your intelligence, your EQ is a measure of your “emotional intelligence.”

That term was coined in 1995 by Daniel Goleman, who first applied the concept to businessmen and women. As he defined it, emotional intelligence is the degree to which you are able to make healthy relational choices based on your understanding of your emotions and those around you. The concept eventually spilled outside of the business world into other arenas.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage May 24, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura