Family and Home Archives

Handling Anxiety God’s Way

Author Curtis Chang personally understands the suffering anxiety causes. Growing up, he was a latchkey kid who dealt with severe anxiety every day, tormenting him with fearful thoughts that his parents would never come home from work and leave him to fend for himself. He coped by repeatedly calling his mother’s office and tracking her arrival home.

While serving as a pastor, Curtis coped with anxiety through preparation and study. But the stress of pastoring eventually pushed him beyond his ability to cope, and he had a breakdown.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, parenting December 26, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Finding True Joy at Christmas

Merry Christmas!

On Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, I’m celebrating the holiday in a unique way. Here are few hints. Think:

Long beards.

Duck hunting.

Camouflage outfits.

The backwoods of Louisiana.

Delicious Cajun recipes.

That’s right. I’m exploring the joys of family and faith and reflecting on what Christmas is all about with Phil and “Miss Kay” Robertson of the Duck Dynasty clan.

They share fun stories – like:

How to cook a squirrel.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family December 25, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Establishing Clear Boundaries in Your Life

Driving is a great illustration for life.

First, what makes driving safe? That line painted down the middle of the road. It’s a boundary that tells you what lane is yours and what lane is mine.

Second, in driving and in life, we encounter people and circumstances everywhere we go that force us to respond quickly and make good decisions.

And third, to get to where we want to go, we must be in the correct lane.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family December 23, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Sacred in the Simple

My wife, Jean, loves decorating for Christmas. If you step into our garage, you’ll notice an assortment of nearly 30 boxes and plastic bins in the rafters. They’re filled with all of the Christmas decorations we’ve accumulated over the decades. My part of the job begins Thanksgiving weekend. I pull everything down and haul it into the house, so Jean can do her thing. I love how beautiful our home looks when she’s done.

One year, I offered to help her.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, marriage December 19, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Character at the Speed of Light

Almost everything moves at the speed of light these days. A hundred years ago a handwritten note from New York to London took four weeks. Today, we can send digital content around the world in fractions of a second. We can even order just about anything from our living room couch and have it delivered to our front door overnight.

We’re so accustomed to immediate results that we expect it in our parenting as well. Our children make a mistake, we correct them once, then we expect an immediate and permanent change in their behavior.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family December 18, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How to Experience Great Intimacy and Love in Your Marriage

Love songs and Hallmark movies paint a lovely image of intimacy. Love is easy. Just find the right person, and you’ll never struggle. You’ll always feel positive about your marriage and your spouse.

But real life usually takes more work than that. Which is where problems in a marriage often develop. Words like “commitment” and “action” sound like intimacy killers, not something that sparks it to life.

So, what does intimacy in marriage look like anyway?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family December 17, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Loving the Spouse God Gave You

One of the most exciting programs at Focus on the Family is our Hope Restored marriage intensives. For couples struggling in marriage, even those on the brink of divorce, Hope Restored goes a long way toward facilitating healing and bringing restoration to a broken relationship.

Just one example is Sadie and Bill. Bill’s marriage betrayal was so significant that Sadie held out little hope that their relationship could be saved. During their intensive counseling, Bill embraced his need for change and dug in to his relationship with the Lord.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, marriage December 12, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Memories of Christmas Past

What do you remember most about last Christmas?

How about Christmas ten years ago?

I’m sure a gift or two comes to mind, but I’ll bet family is what you remember most. I remember my boys Trent and Troy jumping into our bed Christmas mornings before the sun even came up. They had patiently waited for December 25th, now it was time to get things going. Jean and I would grab some coffee and watch the boys disappear behind a tornado of wrapping paper and excitement.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family December 11, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Loving People Through the Truth

Rosaria Butterfield was a tenured professor at Syracuse University who taught queer studies. She was also a lesbian activist who opposed Christianity and wrote scathing articles against people of faith. She even testified before Congress on behalf of the LGBT community.

She was beyond God’s reach.

Or so a lot of people thought. Instead, God worked through a series of unique people and circumstances to change her heart and demonstrate that no one is beyond His reach.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, parenting December 10, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Christmas Secret

Most of us like predictability in life – things we can count on. But then Christmas comes along and reminds us that life is full of surprises.

My boys, Trent and Troy, are grown now. Which is probably why they decided it was time to reveal a Christmas secret they’d been hiding. For years at Christmas Eve, they sneaked downstairs and unwrapped their presents. After seeing what they got, they carefully rewrapped each gift and went back to bed, stifling excited whispers.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family December 9, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura