Family and Home Archives

Integrity Checkmate

Integrity is a paradox. It’s subtle enough that you don’t often think about it. Yet, it’s profound enough that trouble ensues when it’s missing.

Take, for example, the chess match between 33-year-old Magnus Carlsen, a grandmaster from Norway, and the 2,500th ranked player in the world from Kazakhstan. Carlsen was expected to defeat his lower-ranked opponent with ease. Instead, Carlsen was blown out in just 31 moves. How?

Carlsen says his problems started early in the match when he noticed his opponent was wearing a watch.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, marriage March 14, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Identifying Triggers in Your Marriage

Guy and Amber Lia were convinced that they’d made a mistake as soon as they got married. Neither had communication skills to work through differences. Both reacted to each other instead of responding. Only a short time after their wedding, their relationship spiraled, and they considered throwing in the towel.

Every dating couple imagines marriage as a string of mountaintop experiences. We can’t fathom romance fading. We can’t foresee our conversations not stretching into the wee hours of the night.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage March 13, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Marriage Checkup

It’s time for your checkup! Not a checkup for your body, your teeth, or your car, but for your marriage.

According to research, only 19% of couples take part in pre-marital counseling. Of those who get married, only a third seek counseling before getting divorced. And of those couples, many limp into a pastor or a counselor’s office for help only after ignoring their problems for years. Counseling is their last resort, a last ditch effort to rescue a marriage that, by that point, could be beyond saving.

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

Putting Children First in Education

I’ve always believed that a child’s first teachers are mom and dad. Most parents understand their role during their child’s preschool years. But once their child begins elementary school, many parents defer a lot of educational responsibilities to teachers and administrators. In short, they step back and let the professionals take over.

Tragically, that’s a dangerous thing to do these days. There is growing dissonance between parents and once-trusted public school systems. Traditional teaching curriculum have been replaced by alarming agendas of liberal politics, social justice, gender confusion and even sexual exploitation.

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

Late in Life

Are you where you’d thought you’d be at this point in your life? If not, take heart. The best may be yet to come.

Many reach their thirties, forties, or fifties, disheartened that they haven’t accomplished more. Some even fear that they’ve wasted too much time and will never achieve anything worthwhile. I say, no matter your age, don’t give up. Now may be the perfect time to move forward. Many notable figures achieved their greatest work late in life.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family March 7, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Human to Human Connection

A friend of mine once dialed a wrong phone number and reached an elderly woman, who said, “I live alone and don’t have anyone to talk to. Can we chat for a few minutes?” My friend agreed, and they had a lovely conversation.

That woman was not unique. In the wake of COVID, nearly half of Americans say they struggle with feelings of isolation. Loneliness takes an enormous psychological, physical, and financial toll on millions of people.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family March 6, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Embracing Your Role as a Spouse

Successful marriages don’t thrive because of so-called “chemistry,” good luck, or wishful thinking. They thrive because the couple sacrifice their own interests for the sake of each other.

On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Embracing Your Role as a Spouse,” our guest, author Kevin Thompson, describes three roles of a spouse:

As friends, spouses play and laugh together.

As partners, spouses handle conflict and communicate well.

As lovers, spouses put sizzle into their relationship.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, marriage March 4, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Teaching Kids to Love God and Serve Others Well

When my son, Trent, was a teenager, I asked him to rake pine needles out of a rock bed in the front yard. He did a good job, but a couple of times I had to urge him to give a little more effort. Trent often declared a task “good enough” a bit too soon.

My younger son, Troy, faced a different problem. He was so meticulous, he might have kept on raking pine needles until he’d picked up every last one in the neighborhood.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, parenting March 1, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Hurt? Don’t Hate.

In 2006, Charles Roberts entered the one-room schoolhouse of a Pennsylvania Amish community, took a dozen girls hostage, then shot ten of them, killing five before taking his own life.

Days after the shooting, something profound happened. The grandfather of one of the murdered girls stood up at her funeral and urged the congregation to have mercy. “Instead of choosing hate,” he said, “forgive.”

And they did.

Although heartbroken, the people responded to their tragic circumstances with grace.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family February 28, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

When Lives Collide: Navigating Remarriage and Stepfamily

Many couples who enter a second marriage naïvely believe their new stepfamily will bond quickly and fix everyone’s loneliness and loss. When some problems get worse instead, questions and doubts arise until the couple reaches a crossroads: do we hang on? Or do we give up and quit?

How does a new family find its identity?

We’re answering that question on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “When Lives Collide: Navigating Remarriage and Stepfamily.” Our guest is author and speaker Sabrina Beasley McDonald.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family February 27, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura