Family and Home Archives

The Secret to a Joyful Life

Where does your significance come from? Where does your sufficiency come from? Where does your security come from?

Materialism, marketing, and social media skew our perspective. We compare ourselves with movie stars, professional athletes, and Facebook friends who post about their newest car or their latest vacation – and we don’t measure up.

The secret to a joyful, fulfilled life is to see who you are in Christ.

The late Dr. Adrian Rogers shared a powerful message at one of our chapel services many years ago.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith March 5, 2018 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Raising Boys Who Become True Men

“My coach from my senior year could look at me and knight me with his eyes.”

That powerful comment illustrates the hunger of every boy to have a man, particularly a father, draw him into manhood. It comes from Dr. Robert Lewis, who has been associated with Focus on the Family for years. Back in the late 90s, he wrote a book with Focus called “Raising a Modern-Day Knight.” Since then, it’s been our number one best seller.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, kids, parenting March 1, 2018 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Loving Your Spouse Day by Day

What is it that God wants out of our marriages?

Do we think about that? We know what we want out of our marriage, and we know what we expect our spouse to provide us. But what does God want?

Well, much of what God wants for you is wired in to you. A woman’s deepest need is to know that her husband loves her. A man’s deepest need is to know that his wife respects him.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, husband, marriage, wife February 27, 2018 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Before You Hit Send

Every 24 hours, 205 billion emails are sent. Every second, 60,000 tweets are posted to the “Twitterverse.” That’s 3,600,000 tweets per minute.

Many of us have a lot to say.

That should be of some concern when you consider verses like James 3:8, which reminds us that the things we say can be “a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

That’s why it’s important for us to think before we speak … or text … or Snapchat.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, technology February 26, 2018 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Billy Graham: 4 Cs of Marriage and 6 Principles of Parenting

Here at Focus on the Family we’re joining with believers around the world in remembering Dr. Billy Graham and his amazing life and legacy. I hope you had a chance to listen to today’s special radio program featuring a message from the famed evangelist. He is considered the most important and influential evangelist of our time, and rightly so.

Although Focus is a ministry centered on marriage and parenting, it’s no secret that evangelism is central to everything we do.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, family, marriage, parenting February 22, 2018 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Prioritizing Your Marriage in the Midst of Motherhood

What if you loved your spouse every day like it was your first day together?

Becky’s dad told her that was his secret to a happy marriage. “Every morning,” he said, “I wake up with your mother, and I treat her like it’s our very first day together.”

That advice inspired Becky … until she thought of what her behavior ought to look like if she loved her husband like that. Then her heart sink a little.

Topics: Family and Home February 20, 2018 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Peace and Hope in the Midst of Suffering

Where is God?

Isn’t that the question most of us ask in times of trouble? How can we live with strong faith day in and day out when there’s not even the certainty of the next heartbeat?

Julie and John Manning are living those questions. In the middle of their son Hunter being delivered by C-section, Julie started feeling lightheaded and dizzy. The faces of the physician, surgical staff, and the anesthesiologist went blurry and their voices echoed in the background.

Topics: Family and Home February 19, 2018 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Reframing Life’s Disappointments

There’s a well-known story about two shoe salesmen who both went to the same region to look for new opportunities. The first salesman was disappointed to he discover that everyone in the region was shoeless. He called his wife and told her, “I’m coming home. No one here wears shoes.”

The second salesman arrived a short time later and was immediately excited. He called his wife and told her, “Honey, everybody here needs shoes.”

Same circumstances, but two very different outlooks.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith February 16, 2018 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What Is God’s Design for Sex in Marriage?

God has given married couples a wedding present.

Sex.

The Lord designed physical intimacy to be enjoyed by both husbands and wives. First Corinthians 7 tells us that sex is rooted in mutuality. Husbands are to be sensitive to their wives’ needs, and wives are to be sensitive to their husbands’ needs. Marriage is about serving one another, not demanding your own rights.

Sadly, we live in a broken world that undermines God’s sacred designs. Secular culture portrays sex as primarily for the man.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, husband, intimacy, marriage, relationships February 15, 2018 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Escaping the “Family Crazy Cycle”

Parenting is only for adults.

That’s what Dr. Emerson Eggerichs tells parents who struggle with what he calls the “family crazy cycle.”

It works like this: When children feel unloved, they tend to react in ways that feel disrespectful toward their parents. When parents feel disrespected, they tend to react in ways that feel unloving to the child.

And the cycle starts to spin.

Parenting is only for adults because it’s up to mom and dad – not the child – to stop the crazy cycle.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, family, kids, parenting, relationships February 12, 2018 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura