Daly Focus Blog
There aren’t many things more devastating than losing a child.
Pam Vredevelt and her husband have endured the incredible pain and grief of losing two children.
After nine years of marriage, Pam became pregnant for the first time. The baby was developing right on schedule, but at a routine check-up, Pam’s doctor said, “I’m not seeing any heartbeat. I think the baby is dead.”
They had three more children after that. Their youngest, Nathan, was born with Down Syndrome.
No one is beyond God’s reach.
Not even Kelly Stigliano. By age 13, she was sexually promiscuous and involved in divination, witchcraft, and the occult. She and her friends regularly smoke, drank, took drugs, held séances, and vandalized the neighborhood. By age 18, she was pregnant and suicidal.
Kelly married the father of her children and within two weeks she was caught in a cycle of abuse. At its worst, she begged her husband to kill her, so the abuse would end.
When you first got married, did you assume your relationship with your spouse would remain pretty much the same from year to year? Many couples do. That’s probably why so many wind up shocked and utterly confused when life around them changes … and their marriage along with it.
According to our guests on today’s program, relationship experts Bill and Pam Farrel, the key is to recognize that changes are coming – probably sooner than we think – and to prepare for them.
Being a parent takes wisdom, courage, and heart. And being the parent of a girl often requires an extra measure of love and tenderness.
Our next edition of the Focus on the Family Broadcast will encourage you to trust God with your daughter and equip you to help nurture her relationship with God, with her family, and with the world around her.
We’re airing a special conversation we recorded a few months ago with Jonathan and Wynter Pitts, parents of four girls.
Is it possible to change your husband?
Well, yes and no.
Researcher John Gottman says that around 60 percent of the dynamics in a marriage will never change. When you marry somebody, you’re marrying them essentially as they are. A person who’s perpetually late may never care if they’re on time. A neat-freak will never feel comfortable with clutter.
Author Gary Thomas says that still leaves 40 percent for a relationship to grow, and for spouses to learn to approach their marriage in different ways.
“Why can’t they get their shoes on and get in the car?”
“Why do they always get out of bed at bedtime?”
“Why can’t they just do what they’re supposed to do?”
Do you ask yourself questions about your children like that? Do you get frustrated for not handling daily challenges as well as you’d like?
We’ve got help for moms who struggle to respond in a productive manner when their kids misbehave – moms who promised themselves that they would never yell at their children or speak to them harshly.
What do you think a typical week is like for your pastor? A few hours of study and a sermon on Sunday? The occasional hospital- or home-visit?
I recently talked with two couples – Marshall and Merrie Eizenga, and Sam and Pauline Doerksen – who say many pastors routinely experience stress akin to first responders.
The Eizengas served as pastors for 35 years in Ontario and co-direct the Kerith Creek Retreat Center in Alberta, Canada. The Doerksens were pastors for 22 years and co-direct the Kerith Retreat Center in Manitoba, Canada.
I’m sure you’ve heard the term “separation of church and state.” It usually gets tossed about by those on the political left when Christians engage in social issues in a public forum. We’re told that the “separation of church and state” requires that we keep our religious views to ourselves.
The late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist had a different opinion. He said that “separation of church and state” as it’s currently used is a “misleading metaphor” that has proved useless as a guide to judging.
Brian and Cherie Lowe paid off $127,482.30 in debt in just over four years. They know that number to the penny because, as they’ll tell you, when you put in the work and the sacrifice to pay off a dollar amount that high, you remember it to the penny. How did they do it?
Financial foreplay.
Yep, you read that correctly. That’s a term Brian and Cherie use to explain how intricately connected finances are with marital intimacy.
On Easter Sunday in 1972, Raul Ries waited for his family to come home … so he could kill them.
Raul had grown up with an abusive, alcoholic father who taught him to handle problems with violence. Raul was in and out of trouble throughout his teen years until at eighteen, he was arrested and given a choice: prison or the military. He chose the Marines and was sent to Vietnam. After 11 months of bad behavior, he was bound in shackles and a straightjacket and spent six months in a naval hospital.
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.
