Daly Focus Blog
Have you noticed how, every year, Christmas seems to edge out Thanksgiving more and more? It’s now par for the course to see Pilgrim decorations living side-by-side with Santas on store shelves.
A U.K. researcher confirmed the trend: He found people start thinking about Christmas in August.
Isn’t that something?
Why would that be?
Perhaps people are yearning for Christmas. They’re yearning for the warmth and joy and happy memories.
Deep down, though, we’re longing for a Savior.
When a couple is expecting their first baby, it doesn’t matter that pregnancy and childbirth have happened billions of times before to other people – what matters is that it’s their first time. Just ask Jill (Duggar) Dillard and her husband, Derick.
They’re expecting their first baby, a boy, in March.
Fans of the popular show have watched Jill, 23, grow up for the past ten years on her family’s reality show “19 Kids & Counting.” Jill and Derick’s wedding episode was the series’ most-watched at 4.4 million viewers, and the night’s No.
On yesterday’s program, the first in our two-part broadcast, “Game Plan for Having a Happier Family,” our guest, author Dr. Kevin Leman, challenged parents with something of a brainteaser:
Imagine your 14-year-old son announces he just gave the $200 he earned last summer to his buddy.
With a proud grin, he says he is now the co-owner of a used motorcycle.
The question is, how would you react in that moment?
Would it send your blood pressure through the roof and become a source of conflict between you and your child for days on end?
Do you struggle wondering if you measure up as a parent?
Perhaps you see other families from the outside, and it’s like watching a highlight reel. Their children don’t squabble, the parents never have a disagreement, and life seems perfect.
But is it really?
Every family has its challenges.
Just ask Franklin Graham, the son of Billy and Ruth Graham.
If the Lord would bless any family with model children, it would be the Grahams, right?
Our children live in a screen-driven world.
In some ways, it’s been this way for a long time. Since the 1950s, television and children have gone together like cereal and milk.
Who doesn’t remember Saturday morning cartoons?
The advent of video games and the proliferation of smart phones and tablets in the past decade have only served to add to a child’s “screen time.” Walk through a mall or an airport and you’ll see that many children seem perpetually “connected” to an electronic device.
Psalm 127 provides invaluable insight into God’s heart for families. They are familiar verses most Christian parents have heard or read countless times:
1 Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.
2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.
3 Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him.
Adrian Peterson was back in court yesterday, but the USA Today headline from last week jumped out at me:
“Associates of Adrian Peterson only see evidence of ‘a good parent’”
The embattled former Minnesota Vikings star running back was indefinitely suspended last month after charges of child abuse against him were made public. He’s admitted to disciplining his son with a switch, although he suggests he never intended to harm the boy.
The pictures of the bruises suggests a much different and sordid story.
As you know, the term “rose-colored glasses” is used to describe someone who sees the world in an optimistic fashion. It provides a good word-picture because the lens we use to see the world certainly impacts how we perceive it.
In the same way, our worldview influences how we see culture and life around us.
In today’s broadcast, we’re featuring a conversation I recently had with John Stonestreet, who works as the executive director of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
Most parents can agree with the following two statements:
We love our kids
Our kids can test our patience
Part of it is simply the paradoxical nature of the role. Busy lives, hectic schedules, strong personalities colliding – it all works together to make parenting a “glorious act of chaos,” as Bill Farrel, one of today’s broadcast guests, aptly described it.
Yet, we also know that, without clear leadership and a plan, home life can spiral out of control and become crazier than it needs to be.
MONEY magazine recently released its list of “Best Places to Live in America” for 2014, and Castle Rock, Colo., a town just north of Colorado Springs, was number four on the list.
How do they determine which cities make the top ten?
MONEY starts with 781 cities and whittles down the list by looking at factors such as median family income, racial diversity, quality of education, economic opportunity, and even the residents’ level of happiness.
That got me to thinking.
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.
