For 20 years, Jessie Minassian has been a spiritual “big sis” to teen girls and young women. She offers encouragement about love, dating, loneliness, purity, and living out faith in relevant ways.

She’s joining me on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly to help teen girls create a godly identity – from which comes a well-balanced and happy life.

Jessie and I discussed how navigating family conflict can be like a paintball battle, why you may need to turn down the volume in your busy, noisy life so you can hear from God more clearly, and the positive impact of smiling more.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family March 11, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

When things go wrong, we say, “Life spiraled downward.” What we mean is that bad choices quickly multiply.

But good choices multiply as well. In the same way that life can spiral downward, it can also spiral upward. How? One small step at a time.

Nobody likes being told to be patient. Suggestions like, “Take it slow” or, “Just stack one good choice on top of another” are never popular. We’d all rather go from A to Z in one leap.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family March 4, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

My dad left our family when I was five years old and died an alcoholic a few years later. My mom died when I was nine. Hank, my stepdad, walked out on my siblings and me the day of her funeral. After that, I lived with a foster family for a year, but they were so toxic that my life got worse, not better.

Given my broken childhood, hosting a nationally syndicated radio show about all things family has been an unexpected gift to me.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family February 28, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

According to the National Association of Anorexia and Associated Disorders, someone will die from an eating disorder every 52 minutes.

One in five women experience an eating disorder by age 40, and 95% of eating disorders begin before age 25.

Those shocking number underscore the serious nature of this tragic problem. Eating disorders are complex issues with no quick solutions, affecting men, women, and children.

Author Krista Dunham developed an eating disorder after struggling with perfectionism for years.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family February 27, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Let me ask you three questions.

First, if God said to you, “I will answer every single prayer that you pray this week,” how many people in your life would you pray to receive Jesus?

Second question: Are you praying for them now?

Christians often grow weary of praying for someone – or give up entirely – because nothing seems to be happening.

Which leads me to my third question: What if, as we pray for others, God does something in us?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family February 24, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

My childhood was tough. My mom died when I was nine years old. My stepdad walked out on my siblings and me the day of her funeral. After that, I spent almost two years in foster care. When I think back on those days now, I have to search through the darkness to find bright spots.

One of them was when I was 11 years old. My dad and I shared an afternoon I’ll never forget.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family February 20, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Modern Christians are, let’s say, comfortable. We like our comfort zones, our religious routines and our focus on “doing right.”

But what if God is calling us to something more meaningful and challenging, like living a life of service, sacrifice, and forgiveness in a way that transforms the world?

Jesus was a radical. We don’t often think of Him that way. Modern society portrays Him as respectable and polite. But Jesus not only touched lepers, but He also drove corrupted merchants out of the temple with a whip made of cords.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family February 12, 2025 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura