Daly Focus Blog
My advice to married couples is this: pursue romance every chance you get. Take sunset walks on the beach. Eat dinner by candlelight. Kiss in the rain. Enjoy beautiful moments together that lift your relationship beyond itself.
Authors Jay and Laura Laffoon encourage couples to try new things as often as possible. New experiences allow couples to grow as individuals and together. Even small things like trying a new restaurant create little adventures that draw a couple together.
There’s a concept motivational speakers talk about called “failing forward.” It’s all about turning your mistakes into success. One of the best ways to instill that idea into your children is to give them permission to fail.
When my son Troy turned 12, he gave Little League a try. He was nervous. So was I. He had never played baseball before while the other kids had been at it four or five years already. I wondered how long it would be after Troy took the field for his inexperience to show through.
Karen Kain – one of the most respected ballet dancers in the world – once said, “Sometimes a dancer’s worst enemy is themselves. They get in their own way.”
The art of dance is the art of movement. It’s about gracefully moving in concert with the music and with your partner. Every step forward is a risk. Your partner could step on your toes. Or you could step on theirs. The solution is not to focus on your partner’s steps but on your own.
The late Steve Farrar believed Psalm 23 was the most dangerous Psalm in the Bible – dangerous because we know it so well that it loses its deep meaning and significance. The Psalm is only six verses long, but each one is potent and pregnant with meaning.
David, who wrote Psalm 23, was a shepherd as a youth and could have written from the perspective of the shepherd. Instead, he wrote it from the perspective of the sheep.
In order to stand at a wedding altar and say, “I do” with confidence, couples must first understand who they are as individuals. Only a person with a healthy sense of “I” can give to the marriage as much as he or she receives.
A thriving marriage doesn’t erase individuality. It celebrates it. It puts one’s individuality to work in service of the relationship, molding two people into one while encouraging each person’s individual flames to burn bright.
A common question Focus on the Family gets from many moms and dads is, “What’s the best way to do family devotions?”
My wife Jean and I did devotions with our boys throughout their upbringing. Along the way, we discovered that “serious” doesn’t have to mean “dull” or “boring.” We also learned that there’s no one way to pass your faith on to your children.
Jean preferred formal times of Scripture reading and devotion. Her degree is in biochemistry, so it fit her personality to whip up a lesson with the skill and creativity of a schoolteacher.
Abby Johnson describes God’s mercy as “fierce” – that is, His mercy is marked by unrestrained zeal, intensity, and highly determined activity.
Abby experienced God’s “fierce mercy” after working for eight years as an employee and clinical director for Planned Parenthood. In 2009, Abby assisted with an ultrasound-guided abortion and watched in horror as a 13-week baby lost its life right before her eyes. In that moment, she realized the ugly reality of abortion.
The horror of abortion is far more than the number of babies lost each day.
Many people keep on the lookout for big opportunities that will change their lives. But often it’s the small, seemingly insignificant moments that have the greatest impact.
Author Cecil Murphy tells how a broken heel unexpectedly led to a new life for a woman named Betty. Going about her business one day, she broke the heel of her shoe as she stepped into the street. When she sat on the curb to nurse her ankle, she noticed a shoe store for the first time, even though she must have walked by it dozens of times.
Young girls seem to be maturing physically earlier than past generations. In fact, some counselors warn that if you haven’t discussed puberty and sexual development with your child by age 8 or 9, somebody else likely already has.
If that’s alarming to you, tune in to our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Guiding Your Daughter into Womanhood.” We’re equipping moms to prepare for and effectively discuss with their daughter all the physical, emotional, and spiritual developments that come with puberty – that important stage in a child’s life where the body begins to change in significant ways.
I don’t know about you, but thoughts of heaven bring me great comfort!
I love the promise in Revelation 21:4: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Finding Heaven: Knowing God and His Love,” we’re taking a unique look at the God of heaven – the Creator of the universe and the Light and Lover of our souls – with John Burke.
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.
