Daly Focus Blog
A + B = C.
For some of you, that’s basic Algebra.
For some of you, that’s an approach to parenting.
You see raising children as a formula. If you apply the right ideas in just the right ways, you believe you’ll get the right outcome. Every time! Your goal isn’t to be a good parent, or even a great one. Your goal is to be perfect.
On the surface, perfection appears to be an admirable goal.
We live in a culture of contradictions.
When it comes to issues of race and sexual orientation, society shouts the virtues of human dignity from the rooftops. But when it comes to preborn babies, the terminally ill, or the severely disabled, society’s tone changes. Suddenly, ideas like “choice” and “quality of life” trump human dignity.
The Bible says we were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). We all have tremendous worth and value to God from the moment of conception to natural death.
Christina Bennett begins her testimony like this:
“I could have been a statistic, just a number. I had an appointment to die. My mother went to a clinic to have me aborted, but God stepped in at the eleventh hour and rescued me. And I’m going to tell you what He did.”
What follows is a remarkable story of God’s intervention in Christina’s life that has made her an overcomer. Far from being a victim of abortion, she has championed the pro-life cause, particularly in the African American community, which she believes has been targeted by pro-abortion advocates.
Human beings are designed with five core needs – five desires of our hearts that must be met for us to live lives of wholeness.
Security – who can I trust?Identity – who am I?Belonging – who wants me?Purpose – why am I alive?Competence – what do I do well?
Each of those is in their correct order, by the way. If you feel safe and secure, you’ll feel empowered to discover your identity – your deepest passions and strengths.
Dating can be tough. You probably already know that if you’re single. It’s no small matter pursuing a relationship with someone who has the potential to be your spouse one day.
What is God saying to you about marriage?
I made a commitment in my early 20s to serve the Lord through singleness if that were His plan for me. On a Wednesday night about a year and a half later, I encountered God in a way unlike anything I’d experienced before or since.
Do you know how to care for your inner world as well as you do your outer world?
That’s hard if you’re a mom. Motherhood can be a crazy time of life. You feel overwhelmed and stressed. Your work isn’t over after you get home from your day job. It’s just beginning. Even you stay-at-home moms have a full plate from the time your feet hit the floor in the morning until you collapse into bed exhausted late at night.
One writer called grandparenting “the greatest job on earth, handed to you wrapped in a blanket.”
Friends and colleagues of mine who are grandparents tell me it’s a blast.
But they also tell me grandparenting can be a challenge.
Like, how do you stay connected when you live far away from your adult children and grandchildren?
Or how do you maintain a healthy relationship with your adult children? This is a new season of life for both of you.
Greta Henry is the director of Living Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center in Champaign, Illinois. She’s also their director of adoptions and oversees their residential program for women called Merci’s Refuge.
Last year, she asked me to come and speak at Living Alternatives to almost 1,000 workers and supporters. I was happy for the opportunity to share my heart with people who are so dedicated to standing for life.
That night, the audience, including me, also got to hear from Greta and from a young woman named Rain Pierce, who graduated from Merci’s Refuge.
As a medical student in her 20s, Dr. Kathi Aultman was convinced of two things: God didn’t exist, and women deserved the right to an abortion.
She wanted to help women who were struggling with an unwanted pregnancy. And for Kathi, “unwanted” was the key distinction. Some women wanted their pregnancy. Some didn’t. Kathi felt strongly that she was helping women. She was terminating their pregnancy, not a baby.
It was while she was caring for preemies during her neonatal intensive care rotations that she realized the babies she was caring for were at the same stage of development as the babies she had been aborting.
There are a lot of things we can learn from children.
Often, we can become so busy with the hustle and bustle of life, that we forget to take time for what matters most. For Christians, spending time in prayer and reading Scripture can too quickly become an afterthought.
I was reminded of this recently when I came across a video of an adorable schoolboy leading his fellow classmates in prayer before breakfast.
The boy folded his hands, bowed his head, closed his eyes and, with furrowed eyebrows, devoutly prayed:
“Father God, we thank you for this food.
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.
