Family and Home Archives

What Your Kids Need Most to Grow Up Well

Every day parents face a new fork in the road of some kind. You want what’s best for your child. But it’s not always clear what is best.

Will your children thrive with more boundaries? Or more freedom?

Is your child old enough for technology? If so, what kind? And how much screen time should they be allowed?

Are their friends a good influence? Are your children a good influence on their friends?

There is no formula for parenting but there are seven traits to guide moms and dads toward:

AdaptabilityRespectIntentionalityLoveGratitudeGraceForgiveness

How can we raise our children with an approach that infuses them with godly maturity and grace for others?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, family August 18, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Praying with Honest Abandon

How do you pray? Are you open and honest? Do you pour your heart out? Or do you submit to God’s will and wait?

Author Elisa Morgan believes, through the example of Jesus, that we can do both.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus modeled a truth to prayer that can set us free in our prayer lives. In one thought, Jesus both requested (“If you are willing, take this cup”) and relinquished (“Nevertheless, not my will”).

Topics: Family and Home Tags: prayer August 17, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Reconnecting with Your Spouse

Many couples contact Focus on the Family because the intimacy in their marriage has faded. Their relationship is no longer deepening, and they’re growing apart instead of becoming one.

They feel like married roommates.

Drifting in marriage happens when couples stop making their relationship a priority. After the fun of dating and the wedding celebration, other things begin to distract husbands and wives from each other. Work, children, daily schedules, and household responsibilities become the topics of conversation, and spouses stop talking to one another about what they’re thinking and feeling.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage August 11, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Helping Your Young Adult Thrive in College

College is supposed to be an exciting season of life. Fun times. Great classes. New friends.

But it can also be a season of stress. Along with stacks of homework, students have questions about the future. Add to that the impact of the pandemic, and today’s college students are facing a lot of uncertainty.

We were able to host a group of interns this summer here at Focus on the Family. They shared some of their concerns with us about what’s ahead for them.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, parenting August 10, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Intelligence: Discovering Your Child’s Unique Gifts

Due to the ongoing pandemic, the upcoming school year seems poised to be stressful for children and parents alike. If you’re already feeling the pressure, I think our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Intelligence: Discovering Your Child’s Unique Gifts” will be a big help to you.

Dr. Kathy Koch is sharing how to identify and understand how your kids best learn. She says that one factor can make the difference between a school year filled with conflict and frustration, and one of peace as you work with your children’s learning styles.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children August 6, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Who Counts as One of Us?

The abortion debate is framed in many ways. And almost all of them avoid the central question: Who counts as one of us?

Are the preborn alive or not? Are they living human beings or not? In most cases, pro-abortion factions avoid addressing those questions. They frame the discussion around choice, individual rights, and the safety of medical procedures. But no one answers that central question.

We’re answering today on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Who Counts as One of Us?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: pro-life August 4, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Filling Your Marriage with Joy

How big is your marriage’s joy gap?

Dr. Marcus Warner and Chris Coursey, authors of the book The 4 Habits of Joy-Filled Marriages, describe a “joy gap” as the length of time between moments of joy. If you apply that unit of measurement to your marriage, how long has it been?

Days?

Weeks?

Months?

The joy gap can be especially lengthy if we’re waiting for our circumstances to change, for our spouse to make us joyful, or for God to zap us with joy.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage August 3, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Balancing Bonding and Boundaries as a Parent

To raise happy, healthy children, remember this: Rules alone won’t work.

Rules only control a child’s outer behavior. To develop a child’s inner character, you have to go deeper. Until children develop an inner motivation to do the right thing, they’ll keep sticking their toe over the line.

Like a friend of mine’s five-year-old daughter. They were playing together in the front yard. “Stay in the grass,” he told her. “Don’t step onto the sidewalk or the driveway.” The little girl looked her dad right in the eye, playfully danced to the edge of the grass … and stuck her big toe across the forbidden line.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, parenting July 31, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Why I Left the Abortion Industry

In 2019, Focus on the Family hosted an event called Alive from New York. Thousands gathered in Times Square to hear speakers and musicians proclaim the name of Jesus and the sanctity of human life.

Protesters showed up as well. They were a vocal minority … until they were silenced by the star of the event: a baby inside the womb. A holy hush fell over Times Square when we performed a live ultrasound and broadcast the heartbeat over loudspeakers.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: abortion, pro-life July 29, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Search for a Godly Spouse

Not many people know how to pursue marriage with purpose.

For example, when you ask single men and women what they’re looking for in a spouse, many seem unprepared to answer that basic question. The most common responses generally have to do with physical attraction. And that’s not unimportant.

But couples who want a marriage that stands the test of time rise beyond that initial connection point. They keep deeper character traits top of mind, understanding that they’re in a relationship with a whole person, not just a body.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage July 27, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura