Daly Focus Blog
“Why can’t they get their shoes on and get in the car?”
“Why do they always get out of bed at bedtime?”
“Why can’t they just do what they’re supposed to do?”
Do you ask yourself questions about your children like that? Do you get frustrated for not handling daily challenges as well as you’d like?
We’ve got help for moms who struggle to respond in a productive manner when their kids misbehave – moms who promised themselves that they would never yell at their children or speak to them harshly.
What do you think a typical week is like for your pastor? A few hours of study and a sermon on Sunday? The occasional hospital- or home-visit?
I recently talked with two couples – Marshall and Merrie Eizenga, and Sam and Pauline Doerksen – who say many pastors routinely experience stress akin to first responders.
The Eizengas served as pastors for 35 years in Ontario and co-direct the Kerith Creek Retreat Center in Alberta, Canada. The Doerksens were pastors for 22 years and co-direct the Kerith Retreat Center in Manitoba, Canada.
I’m sure you’ve heard the term “separation of church and state.” It usually gets tossed about by those on the political left when Christians engage in social issues in a public forum. We’re told that the “separation of church and state” requires that we keep our religious views to ourselves.
The late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist had a different opinion. He said that “separation of church and state” as it’s currently used is a “misleading metaphor” that has proved useless as a guide to judging.
My friend and colleague Glenn Stanton penned a strong response to a recent Washington Post column that hailed parents for letting their three year-old toddler supposedly choose their sex. His comments appeared in The Federalist.
Here is an excerpt:
Naya is almost three years old. She/he/them is being raised by two guys, Jeremy and Bryan. The adults know the sex on Naya’s birth certificate, but that’s their secret. Not even Naya will know. They believe her real gender exists in her mind, not on a major medical and government document.
Brian and Cherie Lowe paid off $127,482.30 in debt in just over four years. They know that number to the penny because, as they’ll tell you, when you put in the work and the sacrifice to pay off a dollar amount that high, you remember it to the penny. How did they do it?
Financial foreplay.
Yep, you read that correctly. That’s a term Brian and Cherie use to explain how intricately connected finances are with marital intimacy.
On Easter Sunday in 1972, Raul Ries waited for his family to come home … so he could kill them.
Raul had grown up with an abusive, alcoholic father who taught him to handle problems with violence. Raul was in and out of trouble throughout his teen years until at eighteen, he was arrested and given a choice: prison or the military. He chose the Marines and was sent to Vietnam. After 11 months of bad behavior, he was bound in shackles and a straightjacket and spent six months in a naval hospital.
Ron and Opal Erickson call themselves “musicianaires.” Ron is an accomplished steel guitarist, and Opal an accomplished vocalist. They’ve made beautiful music together for over 40 years.
They’ve also walked through the fires of a marriage that seemed irreparably broken. Through God’s grace and wisdom, they survived adultery, rejection, and betrayal and created a new marriage forged in trust, love, and grace.
God has done a remarkable work in their marriage, and we are so excited to share their story with our listeners on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Restoring Hope to Your Marriage.” Listen on your local radio station, online, on iTunes, via Podcast, or on our free phone app.
Sadie Robertson knows what it’s like to be afraid, especially as a student. “I went through a season in my late teens when the fear became extreme, and that’s when I realized things had to change,” she shares in her new book, Live Fearless. After overcoming that mindset through immersion in God’s Word, Sadie now has a heart for empowering thousands of other young people to boldly live out their love for Jesus in the public square.
A study at Hewlett-Packard examined how qualified people felt they needed to be before they applied for jobs. They found that many won’t apply for a job unless their qualifications line up with the job description 100 percent. Others applied for jobs even if they were only 60 percent qualified.
Those statistics made authors Kathi Lipp and Cheri Gregory wonder how many good opportunities people miss out on because they’re hesitant to step out until their circumstances are perfect.
According to pediatricians, babies should be lifting their heads when they’re around 4 months old and rolling over by 5 or 6 months old. They should be taking their first steps around 9 to 12 months and walking unassisted between 14 and 15 months, probably no later than 18 months.
Most parents know their children should be feeding themselves by a certain age, talking by a certain age, and hitting the right height and weight markers by certain ages.
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.
