Daly Focus Blog
Everyday we’re encouraged to go out and change the world and make it a better place. But how can one person truly have a genuine impact?
I like the advice one woman gave to her six-year-old nephew when he asked her how to change the world. She told him to imagine a circle around him then said, “You change the world by doing what’s right in the three feet around you.”
That’s wisdom even a six-year-old can understand.
David Jones is living proof that you should never underestimate a father’s love.
For months, David looked forward to walking his daughter down the aisle. But then Hurricane Helene came along, causing catastrophic damage, knocking out power for millions, and shutting down hundreds of roads, including the ones David needed to get to his daughter’s wedding.
Under normal conditions, his drive from South Carolina to Tennessee takes two hours. After the hurricane, he spent seven hours in traffic that ended at a road block almost 20 miles from his destination.
David Jones is living proof that you should never underestimate a father’s love.
For months, David looked forward to walking his daughter down the aisle. But then Hurricane Helene came along, causing catastrophic damage, knocking out power for millions, and shutting down hundreds of roads, including the ones David needed to get to his daughter’s wedding.
Under normal conditions, his drive from South Carolina to Tennessee takes two hours. After the hurricane, he spent seven hours in traffic that ended at a road block almost 20 miles from his destination.
Author Dave Willis witnessed the life-changing power of love on a visit to an orphanage in Guatemala called Casa Shalom, which means “house of peace.” The privately run Christian orphanage serves about a hundred kids at a time in a place where most orphanages are government-run and fraught with corruption. Some of the children served by Casa Shalom have been sex-trafficked, exploited by the very people who should have been protecting them.
On his first visit there, Dave was introduced to a young Guatemalan girl named Margarita.
Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned roller coaster?
Richard Rodriguez probably. He holds the world record for riding a roller coaster for an astonishing 112 days. Everybody who’s attempted that record will tell you it’s an achievement of endurance, not enjoyment. A roller coaster’s wild dips and corkscrews – designed to create excitement – all lose their thrill when you’re subjected to them over and over and over again.
An endless roller coaster ride isn’t much fun when it’s a marriage, either.
A lot of couples will be interested in my conversation with Dr. Juli Slattery on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly.
Dr. Slattery is a clinical psychologist and the president of Authentic Intimacy, a ministry devoted to reclaiming God’s design for sexuality. Her book God, Sex, and Your Marriage served as the basis for our conversation.
She says few couples experience the intimacy that God intends for their marriage. Sexual problems are a hidden, shameful secret for many because they don’t know how to navigate their pain and frustration or even communicate about it effectively.
When I was 14 years old, a small airplane crashed across the street from where I lived. I called 911 then ran to the plane and helped two 20-somethings out of the burning wreckage. I thought they were the only two in the plane at first. I soon realized that their fathers had also been aboard. They were dead.
I also experienced tragedy in my personal life. My mother died of cancer when I was nine.
My wife Jean and I did devotions with our boys throughout their childhoods. “What kind of devotions?” was the issue we always had to resolve.
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 creativity and skill of a schoolteacher.
As for me, I’m spontaneous and loose. I chatted with my boys about the Bible when we were engaged in routine activities, like driving back and forth to school.
Has parenting been a bumpy ride for you? Some days may be so stressful you’re left wondering, “Is all of this worth it?”
I believe the answer is a resounding yes, but you may not fully appreciate why until after your children are grown. The turbulence can blind you to the reward. On summer vacation one year, my boys and I signed up for a helicopter ride over Bryce Canyon in Utah. The day of our flight the helicopter was under repair, so the pilot took us up in a small Cessna he owned instead.
Sooner or later, we all face circumstances that are beyond our control. The question in those moments is what do we do when there’s nothing we can do?
Future astronaut Jim Lovell faced that situation in 1954 as a navy pilot. He was on a routine training mission over the Sea of Japan one moonless night when his instruments failed. Without warning, his whole world became darkness. To make matters worse, he had no way to visually spot his carrier because the lights had been turned off to avoid enemy detection.
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.
