Daly Focus Blog
I just posted the other day about kindness, but it’s on my mind again.
I’ve been thinking about kindness a lot because I believe it lies at the heart of the Gospel. It’s why one of my favorite verses is Romans 2:4, which says it’s “God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.”
Have you ever met a single believer who became a Christian as a result of judgment, condemnation, or ridicule? Me neither. It’s the kindness of God that opens people’s hearts to the message of God.
One of most iconic and beloved stories in the Bible is that of the Prodigal Son. All of us can find ourselves in that portion of Scripture. Some are prodigal sons, and some are prodigal daughters.
One of the latter is my good friend and former Focus on the Family colleague Yvette Maher. You know how it is with fellow staff members. Years may pass before you learn anything about their history.
I knew and appreciated Yvette’s deep faith from the beginning.
“They’ve told me that I may have to go on a breathing machine soon. I’m not sure that’s something that I want to do, but I’m afraid to dishonor the Lord. Should I say yes to a respirator, or should I say no?”
If someone asked you that question, how would you answer?
How to apply God’s truth to very real and very dark realities is not always easy. When you’re wrestling with a question as profound as whether or not life is worth living, only God – not conventional wisdom – is adequate to answer.
“He wasn’t easy to raise, but it’s been more difficult losing him.”
That’s how Jan Harrison describes the emotional struggle she’s endured since her son, James, passed away six years ago at the age of 27. He was a challenge to raise because he was born with an adventurous spirit. He wasn’t the kind of kid who responded well to boundaries that locked him down.
That’s not easy for a mom whose natural instinct was to keep her son safe.
Today’s broadcast has me thinking a lot about one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It reminds me of how I ought to conduct myself in the name of Christ. In Romans 2:4, Paul tells us that it’s “God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.”
Kindness is a fruit of the Spirit – an expression of God’s nature through us – and one of the most powerful tools for Christians who wish to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the world around them.
As we look forward to Honoring Marriage in February, I asked Greg Smalley, who heads up our marriage efforts, to guest blog on a sometimes-overlooked aspect of honoring marriage: cherishing your spouse. I hope the content Greg shares below will bless your marriage. -J.D.
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I have been to many weddings in my lifetime, and I have heard couples declare their love for each other in ways that brought tears to my eyes. I have listened to words that caused me to laugh out loud, and sadly, I’ve heard couples say things that made me shake my head in disbelief.
A colleague once shared with me a quote from Abraham Lincoln. It dealt with his perspective on public opinion and its impact on the direction of America, as well as the power of culture to shape politics and law:
In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.
That’s a statement that just as easily could have been uttered today.
“It started as a normal day…”
Anytime a story begins with that line, you know it’s not going to end well. Katherine’s story begins like that.
April 21, 2008 started as a normal day. Katherine was a 26-year-old wife and new mother. She had been the picture of health. But on that fateful Monday she experienced what she describes as a “funky feeling” she couldn’t shake. Within hours, she was on her hands and knees throwing up, her body slowly going numb.
Sometimes perspective is everything, isn’t it?
Take marriage as an example. It’s easy for husbands and wives to fixate on their differences, maybe because those differences can easily become the source of marital conflict.
From there, it’s only a short leap for a spouse to think that their way of doing things is better, or their thinking is superior.
It’s like a story I heard once of an English professor who wrote a simple sentence on the classroom board for his students to punctuate.
You know how it is when you move into a new home. There’s so much to do at the old house, you just throw everything into boxes and commit to sorting through it all at the new house.
That’s what Jean and I did when we moved into our current home. Once the truck was unloaded, we pulled the lid off each box and looked through every item one by one.
Keep this.
Put that over there.
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.
