Daly Focus Blog
My son Troy’s love language is physical touch. When he was younger, he was the first one to run into my arms when I got home each night. Even now as a teenager, he loves when I give him a big bear hug.
My older son, Trent, is more introverted and cerebral. I’ve asked him if he’s okay with hugs, and he says yes, but sometimes he stands so rigid he’s like hugging a pole. I have to remind him to use his arms.
Earlier this month, the city of Chicago made headlines when 74 people were shot in a single weekend in numerous incidents and neighborhoods. As of today, 12 of those wounded have died.
Sadly, rampant crime in the Windy City is not a new phenomenon. During the July 4th holiday weekend in 2017, 101 people were shot, 14 of whom died.
For years, liberal commentators have been attributing the rise in violence to guns – or easy access to them, inadequate laws, insufficient government spending, drugs and the proliferation of gangs.
By the time kids enter middle school, their march toward independence is well under way.
But let’s face it – it can be a confusing time for parents.
When a child spreads his wings, it can feel like he’s turning his back on you instead. But that’s not really the case. Your middle schooler needs you as much as he always has.
In some ways, more.
He just needs you in a different way than he did in his formative years.
On my first day of kindergarten, I refused to go. My mom had to drag me down the block to the school.
But something magical happened that first morning – and her name was Mrs. Smith, my kindergarten teacher. I had an immediate crush on her. In fact, I was so smitten, I didn’t want to leave that afternoon. So just like my mother had to drag me to school, my teacher had to drag me home.
Week ending July 20th:
I Don’t Want a Divorce (by Dr. David Clarke)
30 Days to Taming Your Tongue (by Deborah Smith Pegues)
The 10 Best Decisions Every Parent Can Make (by Bill Farrel)
Ken Davis: Good News (by Ken Davis)
Parenting Your Powerful Child (by Kevin Leman)
Raising Kingdom Kids (by Tony Evans)
Job – Bible Study Book: A Story of Unlikely Joy (by Lisa Harper)
Red-Hot Monogamy (by Bill Farrel)
Kingdom Marriage (by Tony Evans)
Unoffendable (by Brant Hansen)
Sharing God’s Big Love with Little Lives (by Jean Thomason)
Growing Kids with Character (by Hettie Brittz)
God & Country (by Andy Stanley)
Through the Eyes of a Lion (by Levi Lusko)
If you’re a parent, you may feel like you’ve got everything under control most days. But every now and then, something unexpected happens and nothing goes right with your kids. If that’s been your experience, we’ve got some great encouragement for you today on the Focus on the Family Broadcast.
That sense of frustration and of wondering, “What do we do now?” is something Jean and I have experienced many times with our boys.
Parenting is filled with surprises for most of us, and it’s often a lot harder than we expected.
Is your child a rosebush?
A palm tree?
A pine?
How about a boxwood?
God wires our children with unique personality types. The nuances can be quite diverse, but they’re also finite to the point where a model of four personality types can explain them.
There’s power in personality. It’s a window into a child’s soul that parents can look through to see their hearts and to know how to lead them forward through life.
Hettie Britz is an author, a speaker, and one of the foremost voices in parenting advice from a biblical perspective in South Africa.
Luis Palau is one of the most well-known evangelists in the world. And yet, for many years, while he stood in front of stadiums of people and witnessed thousands respond to his call to receive Jesus, his own heart was aching for his son, Andrew, who had turned away from God.
Luis and his wife, Patricia, saw him moving in the wrong direction, and they did everything within their power to guide him back. But there came a point, Andrew says, “where I had wandered so far away from God that all they could do was have faith.
Why do kids misbehave?
Dr. Kevin Leman offers these 3 reasons:
Attention-getting
Power
Revenge
He says the strong-willed child has been given a bad rap. We want our kids to be strong-willed. When the world tells them, “Do everything we do,” we want our son or daughter to know right from wrong and to have the conviction to stand for it.
What you don’t want, Dr. Leman says, is the “powerful child.” They have an agenda.
By: Joe Battaglia
Whether we like it or not, all fathers are teachers.
Some are absent.
Some are reluctant.
But children will learn SOMETHING from their dad.
Even if it’s nothing.
The question is what do we want them to learn, and from whom?
I became acutely aware of this scenario in a rather strange way—by shopping with my daughter when she was about 13-14 years old.
While we were at a mall, my daughter asked to go into a very hip, fashionable store for teens to buy a shirt.
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.
