Family and Home Archives

Helping Kids See God’s Glory in Nature

Nature has incredible influence over us.

Studies show that plants and flowers help post-surgery patients raise their spirits, experience shorter hospital stays, require less medicine, and recover faster.

An article from the Yale School of Environment reports that spending a cumulative time of two hours in nature each week has significant health benefits.

Nature is also an incredible classroom for teaching children about God’s character. Even young children can perceive God’s hidden attributes through creation (Romans 1:20), connect God’s Word to the natural world, and develop a deep understanding of the rich nature narratives strung throughout Scripture that point to the Creator.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting June 21, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Talking to Your Daughter About Puberty

Do you feel like your daughter is growing up too fast?

Believe it or not, it may be true. In fact, that conversation about puberty you assumed was still a few years off may be needed sooner than you think.

There’s some debate about why it’s happening, but there’s no question that puberty is occurring earlier and earlier in girls. For some, it could be as young as seven or eight! Puberty brings about big changes in a girl’s physical development and body image, and that can be scary if she isn’t prepared for what’s coming.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, parenting June 20, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What to Do When Your Job Is Killing You

Drs. Gary Chapman and Paul White say toxic jobs and dangerous jobs are similar. Each are stressful, take place in difficult environments, and likely include dysfunctional colleagues who undermine you and the organization.

Brutal bosses. Soul-crushing cultures. Poisonous people. If you personally haven’t experienced workplace trauma, you may be surprised by how many of your friends and colleagues have. According to a Gallup report, seven out of ten American workers either “go through the motions” or flat-out hate their jobs.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith June 16, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Believing in the Hope of Heaven

Lee Strobel was an investigative journalist and an atheist who set out to disprove Christianity. Instead, he discovered that the evidence for Christ’s resurrection is “strong, persuasive, powerful, and based on a solid foundation of historical truth.”

In the summer of 2011, Lee woke up in the emergency room after his wife Leslie found him unconscious on the bedroom floor. The doctor told him, “You were one step away from a coma and two steps away from death.” Lee was diagnosed with an unusual medical condition called hyponatremia – a severe drop in blood sodium level that caused his brain to swell.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith June 14, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Something Significant

One of the most significant ministries over the course of Focus on the Family’s nearly 50-year history is Adventures in Odyssey, a radio drama for children (check here for more information). Each episode presents a great moral lesson about family and faith in an entertaining way.

On our Focus on the Family Broadcast, we’re sharing an Odyssey program called “Something Significant,” which features the character Trent DeWhite, who wants to do something big for God.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith June 13, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Finding Financial Freedom Together as a Couple

For many couples, money can be a source of intense confusion and despair. Most of us weren’t taught how to manage money well. We rely on tips we pick up along the way from family, friends, and social media.

On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Finding Financial Freedom Together as a Couple,” our guests Bob and Linda Lotich are with us to share wise and godly money management principles that will bless your marriage and put your money to use for the Kingdom of God.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage June 12, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Finding Grace After an Abortion

The Christian community talks routinely about choosing life. One expression of that is reaching out to women in desperate situations before they make the life-altering decision to terminate a pregnancy.

But what about after they’ve chosen abortion?

On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Finding Grace After an Abortion,” we’re talking to Serena Dyksen – speaker, author, and founder of She Found His Grace, a ministry that helps women who have experienced abortion or sexual trauma – about how to help women who have suffered the trauma of abortion find grace and recovery.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: pro-life June 8, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Learning to Love Your Spouse Well

It’s much easier to tell your spouse, “I love you,” than to show them through your actions.

That truth is illustrated in the number of questions we get from married couples about navigating busy schedules, financial issues, and communication and conflict. Each of these topics represent small everyday moments that easily turn into big disruptions to marital unity.

Authors Matt and Lisa Jacobson are with us on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Learning to Love Your Spouse Well” to encourage husbands and wives to serve and love each other well.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: marriage June 6, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Collapse of the Nuclear Family, Not the Ever-Changing Climate, is the Crisis of Our Lifetime

We tend to worry about the wrong things, and nowhere is this more prominent and prevalent than when it comes to identifying and focusing on the most critical problem facing humanity.

Contrary to the elite opinions served up across the nation’s major editorial pages and on television news programs, not to mention subtly and cleverly inserted into everything from children’s television, advertisements to major Hollywood releases, it’s not the climate – and not by a lot.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family May 31, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Are Your Five Core Needs Being Met

To experience wholeness, five desires of our hearts must be met:

Security. Who can I trust?

Identity. Who am I?

Belonging. Who wants me?

Purpose. Why am I alive?

Competence. What do I do well?

Each of those are listed in their correct order, by the way. If you feel secure, you’re more likely to discover the deepest passions and strengths of your identity. Out of those, you’ll discover your purpose and develop competence.

Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith May 30, 2023 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura