“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.

“Do you think our focus on marriage and parenting will be relevant in this part of the world?” I had asked.

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: broadcast, marriage November 14, 2016 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

“I always say that the loneliest place I’ve ever been in my life is not Afghanistan but in my own bed … with my wife’s back turned to me.”

That comment from veteran Chad Robichaux resonates with a lot of military couples, who sacrifice and endure demands on their marriages most civilians don’t understand.

After 9/11, Chad’s special ops unit did eight tours of duty in Afghanistan. Survival in the war-torn Middle East requires good training and high degrees of adrenaline and emotional intensity.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage November 10, 2016 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

My marriage enjoyed a significant boost a couple of summers ago on a family vacation to Glacier National Park in Montana.

Jean, the boys, and I hiked to a place called Hidden Lake but were stopped several hundred yards away. It was spawning season for the trout, and the bears were especially active. Still, from where we were, we could see the bears splashing through the water hunting for fish.

I should say my boys and I could see them.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage October 31, 2016 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Are you worried your spouse isn’t your soul mate?

Well, let me encourage you with this: soul mates aren’t found, they’re formed over time.

Juana Mikels and her husband, Terry, are proof of that. College sweethearts, they walked down the aisle believing the planets had surely aligned in order for them to find each other. But just two years into their marriage, the planets had all but fallen out of their orbits.

Juana was convinced she had married the wrong person.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage October 25, 2016 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Picture yourself in an antique store.

You’re standing before an old chair, its wood dinged up and the varnish dirty and worn. At first, you have trouble seeing past the grime and scratches to appreciate its craftsmanship.

But what if, just as you turn to leave the store, you discovered the chair belonged to Abraham Lincoln? Suddenly, instead of a banged up old relic, you’re looking at a piece of history.

What happened? The chair didn’t change.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage October 18, 2016 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

I know my wife loves me.

She tells me so every day, but she also brings me coffee.

I usually start each day with some quiet time for devotions and to look over work for the day ahead. Many days Jean will bring me a nice hot cup of joe. It’s her way of saying, “I love you.”

I should say, it’s my way of hearing, “I love you.”

In the same way our personality has us hardwired to be introverted or extroverted, we all feel love in specific ways.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage October 7, 2016 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Here in Colorado, you can tell that winter is right around the corner. The days are getting cooler, and you can feel it in your bones: that first arctic blast isn’t too far off.

The end of summer has me already longing for spring because once the cold, snow, and ice set in around here, they seem to last forever.

It’s no fun being stuck in winter.

That icy chill is even worse to be stuck in when it describes your marriage.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage September 20, 2016 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What do you use to hold your marriage together?

Super Glue?

I may as well suggest duct tape, right? According to the late Dr. Adrian Rogers, God Himself uses Super Glue.

Well, sort of.

Dr. Rogers draws from Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (ESV).

The original Greek translated into “hold fast” (“cleave” in the KJV) means “to weld or to glue.”

Commitment, not love, is the foundation of every successful marriage.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, marriage September 5, 2016 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura