Daly Focus Blog
Here at Focus on the Family we’re joining with believers around the world in remembering Dr. Billy Graham and his amazing life and legacy. I hope you had a chance to listen to today’s special radio program featuring a message from the famed evangelist. He is considered the most important and influential evangelist of our time, and rightly so.
Although Focus is a ministry centered on marriage and parenting, it’s no secret that evangelism is central to everything we do.
God has given married couples a wedding present.
Sex.
The Lord designed physical intimacy to be enjoyed by both husbands and wives. First Corinthians 7 tells us that sex is rooted in mutuality. Husbands are to be sensitive to their wives’ needs, and wives are to be sensitive to their husbands’ needs. Marriage is about serving one another, not demanding your own rights.
Sadly, we live in a broken world that undermines God’s sacred designs. Secular culture portrays sex as primarily for the man.
Valentine’s Day marks the culmination of National Marriage Week here in the United States. Conceived as a “collaborative campaign to strengthen individual marriages, reduce the divorce rate, and build a culture that fosters strong marriages,” the effort mirrors the ongoing daily work of our ministry.
The traditions surrounding Valentine’s Day may frustrate some, but I’ve always enjoyed them. Jean has been my Valentine for three-plus decades now, and I consider her a gift.
For my fellow male readers, I’m going to assume you’ve already taken care of the cards, the flowers and chocolates.
Marriage is central to what we do here at Focus on the Family.
We believe that marriage is the foundation of the family. We also believe that God’s design for marriage is a relationship where both husband and wife are committed to loving and caring for one another for a lifetime.
The problem is, men and women are selfish creatures, and their selfishness comes out in all kinds of unhealthy ways. One of the most devastating aberrations is an affair.
What’s your favorite song?
The reason it’s your favorite is probably because you enjoy the vocals of the lead singer. But perhaps more than you think about, you also enjoy the song because of a cast of characters who some would say are 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.
Julie and Clay’s first baby was due any time. To celebrate and to enjoy one last date night – at least for a while – Julie planned a romantic dinner at their favorite restaurant.
That evening, Julie arrived before Clay, and waited.
And waited.
He was supposed to come there straight from work, but twenty minutes passed and still no Clay. She called his phone. No answer.
Thirty minutes passed.
Then an hour.
Clay and Julie lost their reservation, and Julie’s expectations for the night were ruined.
Week Ending January 12, 2018.
Enjoy!: The Gift of Sexual Pleasure for Women (by Cliff & Joyce Penner)
The Married Guy’s Guide to Great Sex (by Cliff & Joyce Penner)
Little Book of Great Dates (by Dr. Greg & Erin Smalley)
Kingdom Woman (by Tony Evans, Chrystal Evans Hurst)
Financial Peace Junior Kit (by Dave Ramsey)
Put the Disciple Into Discipline (by Erin MacPherson)
Joni and Ken: An Untold Love Story (Ken & Joni Eareckson Tada)
The Case for Life (by Scott Klusendorf)
The Kindness Challenge (by Shaunti Feldhahn)
NIrV Adventures in Odyssey Children’s Bible
Cherish (by Gary Thomas)
Martin Luther (by Eric Metaxas)
Openness Unhindered (by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield)
Honey, We Need to Talk (by David E.
Week Ending January 2, 2018
Openness Unhindered (by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield)
Cherish (by Gary Thomas)
The Kindness Challenge (by Shaunti Feldhahn)
Exploring the Joy of Christmas (by Phil Robertson)
Hope Rising (by Kim Meeder)
7 Women (by Eric Metaxas)
7 Men (by Eric Metaxas)
Forgive, Let Go, and Live (by Deborah Smith Pegues)
Honey, We Need to Talk (by David E. Clarke)
The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield)
Your Teenager Is Not Crazy (by Dr.
“…to love and to cherish, till death do us part.”
A lot of us recited similar vows at our wedding, but no sooner did we walk the gauntlet of flying rice than the word “cherish” began fading from our vocabulary. We didn’t mean for it to happen. The years went by, we settled into our lives, and we woke up one day with a marriage that was missing something deeper, more satisfying.
Visible light is perceived as only one color, but shine it through a prism, and you discover it’s actually a whole rainbow.
Are you a clam or a crowbar?
That’s an analogy Dr. David Clarke uses to help husbands and wives understand how their poor communication skills have landed them in his counseling office.
In almost every marriage, there’s a clam. The percentages suggest it’s usually men, but it can be women, too.
In either case, clams are the ones who don’t naturally talk on an emotionally deep level. They clam up. But every time they do, their spouses break out a crowbar to pry them open.
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.
