Family and Home Archives

Guest Post: Dear Parents with Young Children in Church

This stay-at-home mom’s blog post has already encouraged many parents who, week after week, faithfully attend church services with their young children. I hope it encourages you, too.

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You are doing something really, really important. I know it’s not easy. I see you with your arms overflowing, and I know you came to church already tired. Parenting is tiring. Really tiring.

I watch you bounce and sway trying to keep the baby quiet, juggling the infant carseat and the diaper bag as you find a seat.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: church, kids, pastors November 12, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Complimentary CD for Military Families

Today is Veterans Day, when we honor the brave men and women who have served in our Armed Forces. Each one is a hero, and we’re indebted to them far beyond our ability to pay.

On today’s and tomorrow’s radio broadcasts, you’ll meet one of these mighty warriors. U.S. Army Major Scotty Smiley was blinded by a car bombing in Iraq. His inspiring story of recovery will leave you in awe. Please click here to listen.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, religious liberty November 11, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

This Operation Christmas Child Grew Up and Paid It Forward

In my post last week “How Shoeboxes Help Spread the Gospel,” I talked about how Operation Christmas Child provides children around the world with what might be their only opportunity to receive the Gospel message. I also shared pictures taken by a Focus staffer of the boys and girls in Senegal, Africa, as they received boxes.

One of the people who attended that trip was Damaris, a young woman who, herself, received a shoebox when she was 9.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, friendship, pastors November 8, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How to Pass Along a Faith that Lasts to Your Kids

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the misperception that millennials are losing their faith. In that post, I mentioned two facts that will springboard us to today’s topic of faith retention:

1. Young people are not leaving the church in droves.

2. Of all young adults that do leave the church, only 11 percent came from homes where a consistent/serious faith was practiced, whereas 89 percent came from lukewarm or no-faith homes.

In other words, what parents do to build faith into their kids matters.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: church, kids, parenting November 6, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Guest Post: Curse God and Die

A few years ago, our public relations team welcomed a spirited young woman as a summer intern. Whitney Williams immediately threw herself into her role, learning to coordinate interviews and write news releases. She even met her husband, Mix, while serving at Focus.

After her stint here, Whitney went back to Texas, finished college and got married.

Those who worked with Whitney were happy to follow her pregnancy on Facebook – and shocked to discover, along with her and Mix, that their baby boy was born with a rare congenital skin condition.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: entertainment, family, husband, kids, wife November 5, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Guest Post: What I’ve Learned About Adoption Since Adopting

November is National Adoption Month, so I want to do something special in this space to observe the occasion. Throughout the month, I’ll be highlighting adoption stories – the experiences of real-life families who have taken that leap of faith of welcoming someone new as their own.

Through these first-hand accounts you’ll see God supernaturally moving in the lives of very normal people. These are men and women just like you and me – people who might have feared the prospect of adoption.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: adoption, faith, family, kids, wife November 4, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

VIDEO: Faithful Heart

God is sometimes more glorified when He walks us through something rather than when He delivers us from something.

Such is the case for Julie Manning, a young mom who lives with a chronic heart problem that could result in cardiac arrest at any moment. “There are hundreds of times a day,” she explains, “that I’m reminded that my life is not my own, and Jesus can take it.”

God could heal her – but He hasn’t.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith November 1, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How Shoeboxes Help Spread the Gospel

It’s hard to believe the holiday season is right around the corner. In an effort to combat the overly materialistic hue Christmas has taken on, some commentators will bemoan the tradition of gift-giving.

I won’t be one of them.

Don’t get me wrong – I agree that, far too often, we’ve allowed Christmas to become what it’s not. It’s obviously not about running over fallen shoppers to get the “it” toy for a son or daughter.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, kids, relationships, religious liberty October 30, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Could You Do Without This for 24 Hours?

Have you ever noticed how culture glorifies multi-tasking and busyness? Lately, it seems we’re trying to accomplish more than ever in shorter and shorter periods of time. We buy faster and more efficient technology and install apps on our phones in the hopes of getting ahead.

In fact, some will even admit to a rush that comes from simultaneously answering emails, talking on the phone and scanning Facebook.

But what happens when we do all of this from the kitchen countertop as we serve our children their morning cereal?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, pop culture, technology October 29, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Help “The Bible” Miniseries Win “People’s Choice Award”

Remember “The Bible” miniseries that was broadcast on The History Channel last spring?

Well, it’s now up for a People’s Choice Award in the category of “Favorite TV Movie/Miniseries.”

Nearly 100 million people tuned in to see it, and it’s the top-selling miniseries in Blue-Ray history. But that’s not the greatest success producers Mark Burnett and his wife Roma Downey achieved through their cinematic telling of major biblical stories.

From the beginning, Mark and Roma were very open about their big hope for the miniseries: to “affect a new generation of viewers and draw them back to the Bible.”

The Burnetts were inundated with stories from viewers who were blessed and encouraged to dust off and read their Bibles as a result of watching the five-part series.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: entertainment, events, family October 28, 2013 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura