faith Archives

Understanding Your Purpose and God’s Plan

According to Lifeway Research, 57% of Americans are seeking meaning and purpose in their lives.

In the classic comic Peanuts, Charlie Brown visits Lucy’s “psychiatric” stand and asks for advice. Lucy explains that on the cruise ship of life some people arrange their deck chair at the back of the ship to see where they’ve been. Others place their chairs at the front, so they can see where they’re going. When asked which way Charlie’s chair is facing, he replies, “I’ve never been able to get one unfolded.”

Can you relate?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith May 20, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

What You Can Do to Help Kids in Foster Care

May is National Foster Care Month.

Nearly 400,000 children in the United States are in foster care, which means they’ve been separated from their families – in some cases, permanently – and need a safe, healthy place to live.

Unless you’ve lived as a foster kid like I did, or know a family who is involved in foster care, you’re probably not aware of how difficult these circumstances can be for children. We in the Christian community have a wonderful opportunity to come alongside these children and help them thrive.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family May 17, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Eye of the Beholder

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That means things look different depending on your perspective.

Take the Rocky Mountains, for example. If you live along the front range like I do, you get to see them up close every day. They’re one of the most beautiful mountain ranges on earth, stretching 3,000 miles from Canada to Mexico.

Maybe one of the reasons the Rocky Mountains seem so beautiful to you and me is that we live in the 21st century.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith May 15, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Break the Elephant Rope

Sometimes – perhaps most of the time – what keeps us from success … is us. It’s not other people and circumstances that keep us from a better career or a better marriage. It’s us. We hold ourselves back. We’re bound by mental and emotional barriers, like imaginary ropes around our ankles that convince us we can only stray so far in a new direction.

Negative thoughts are powerful enough to hold back an elephant. Literally.

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

Hope and Encouragement for Moms

Kirsten Watson’s husband, Benjamin, played for six NFL teams and won a super Bowl in 2005. Much of those 15 years, she was on her own in a new city with a household of seven children, including twins. At one point, she was so stressed she suffered painful migraines that doctors said would continue unless she made changes.

Maybe you relate to the pressure Kirsten felt. Motherhood is beautifully rewarding, but it has its challenges. According to one Barna study:

Eight in 10 moms feel overwhelmed by stress.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family May 10, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Just One

Jason Smith, a middle school principal in Kentucky, met his daughter for the first time when she was in the sixth grade.

Her name was Raven. She’d been sent to Jason’s office after getting angry in the cafeteria and throwing food at a fellow student. When Jason sat Raven down, he asked her, “Would you act that way at a restaurant?” Her answer surprised him. She had never eaten in a restaurant, she said, because she’d spent her entire life in the foster care system.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family May 9, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Joy of Submission

Is freedom the absence of rules and discipline? Or is it submitting to rules and discipline?

I believe freedom begins with submission. Let me explain it this way. I like to play golf. But it’s a hard game. The first time I grabbed a club I didn’t whack a ball 300 yards straight down the middle of the fairway. A golf swing takes years of practice to develop and a lifetime to master. And yet, it’s discipline of learning to swing a club properly that offers me freedom.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith May 8, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Better Ways to Communicate with Your Spouse

“Mayday! Mayday!”

You recognize that distress call, don’t you? Even children understand what it means. The fact that they do reveals two important ingredients to effective communication. Simplicity and clarity.

The “mayday” distress code was created in 1923 by Frederick Mockford, an airport radio officer in London, after his boss challenged him to devise a distress code that could be understood by pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Because much of the air traffic at the time was between London and Paris, Mockford proposed the expression “mayday.” It was easy to say, and it sounded like the French term for “help me.” “Mayday” communicates so well that it’s still used all over the world.

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

Improve Yourself, Improve Your Relationships

While on vacation in Italy, Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott visited Michelangelo’s famous statue of King David. So did thousands of other people that day. To escape the crowds, the Parrotts explored a nearby hall called “Hall of the Prisoners.” On display were several unfinished statues that Michelangelo labelled “The Captives.” The incomplete works were emblematic of mankind’s struggle to feel integrated with God, with ourselves, and with the people around us.

Our relationships can only be as healthy as we are.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family May 3, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Building Habits of Prayer with Your Children

Parenting children is one of the greatest blessings a man or woman can experience.

But it has its challenges.

Parenting can be overwhelming, embarrassing, and messy, too. That’s why praying for and with your children is so important. Their fate is ultimately in God’s trusted hands. He loves them more than we can and knows better than we do what they need.

My hope for you is that you’re able to approach prayer more out of confidence than fear.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family May 2, 2024 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura