Daly Focus Blog
It’s not easy for a single mother to raise a son. It’s even more difficult when that son has autism.
Emily Colson can attest to that. Her husband walked out when their son Max was just 18-months-old, saying he couldn’t handle the stress.
And there was a lot of stress. Max’s autism was so severe that, for a time, Emily couldn’t leave home with him – not to the grocery store, not to friends’ houses, not to church.
Anyone who looked at Michael Kent a few years ago would have been forgiven for thinking he was beyond hope.
He was in jail, and his body bore various tattoos that gave witness to his Neo-Nazi beliefs, including a large swastika on his chest. He was also part of a violent skinhead group.
There’s no way that guy’s ever going to change, right?
Well, not so fast.
Turns out the Michael Kent of today is very different – and it’s all thanks to his friendship with an African-American woman, Tiffany Whittier.
Chocolate was a symbol of how bad Sandy and Tom’s marriage had become.
They were in a drive-thru ordering food, and Sandy asked for a chocolate shake. Tom said “no” and forced her to reorder. Vanilla, he believed, was the better choice. He was convinced chocolate would make her face break out and cause her to gain weight.
Tom didn’t realize it at the time, but the problem wasn’t chocolate, it was control. To get the marriage he was after, Tom thought he had to rule with an iron fist.
The 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation is fast approaching. On Reformation Day, we remember how Martin Luther, a German monk, nailed his 95 Theses on the door of a Wittenberg church on Oct. 31, 1517.
But while Martin Luther is closely associated with his opposition to selling indulgences – monetary payments to receive forgiveness for sin – fewer people today know he was also instrumental in helping change the way Christians look at marriage.
Before the Reformation took place, celibate service to God was often seen as the highest calling.
The percentages are hard to know for sure, but research indicates that 50 percent or more of all women feel lonely.
Dr. Joneal Kirby points to several reasons why those numbers are so high. For one, social media has caused an increase in superficial relationships. Some women have dozens of friends on Facebook, but very few with whom they can talk face-to-face. They don’t meet for coffee with anyone, and they have no one with whom they can get beneath the surface, share their hearts, and “do life.”
Women are also busier than ever.
Terrie and Cal’s son is 38. Their oldest daughter is 34. Abbey, their youngest, is 12.
That’s right – 12.
How did that happen? Well, it’s quite a story. It’s something of a miracle, too. Not a medical miracle, but the sort of miracle made possible by adoption.
Before she stepped into Terrie and Cal’s lives, Abbey was removed from her biological mother at a young age, then cycled through a revolving door of adoptive families, foster parents, and residential treatment centers for adolescents.
One of Focus on the Family’s top public policy priorities for the Trump Administration has been appointing top-notch judges who interpret the Constitution and our laws as written and originally understood.
That’s because our federal courts have been filled with judicial activists who rewrite the laws and Constitution to reflect their own personal preferences. It’s been because of these activist judges that we have legalized abortion, legalized same-sex marriage – and some lower courts are even reinventing the definition of “sex” in discrimination laws to include biological men who identify as women, and vive versa.
News outlets and social media have been erupting over issues of racial inequality. There are protests online, protests in the streets, and symbolic protests during the national anthem at NFL games.
Benjamin Watson has a unique perspective on those matters. He’s an African-American, and he plays professional football. He was on our Focus on the Family Broadcast a few weeks ago challenging men to step up in their support of their wives and to be passionate about helping them to be great mothers.
I didn’t want Hispanic Heritage Month (which is celebrated between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15) to end without recognizing the many Hispanic men, women and families in the U.S., and the contributions they make to our country.
Recent stats put Hispanics and Latinos at about 17 percent of the total U.S. population, or 56.5 million. They’re a varied group of people: Hispanics can come from any of the 21 Spanish-speaking countries around the world, and each country has its own culture, cuisine, and customs.
Mom and Dad, are you a tug boat or a rudder?
You can tell by the way you motivate your children. Tug boat parents pull their children through the water to get them going the right direction. Rudder parents steer them in the way they should go.
We’re all tug boats from time to time. I know I’ve grabbed the rope and started to pull when one of my boys hasn’t made a good decision. That urge to force them in the right direction usually plays upon my concern for their health and well-being.
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.
