Mister Jim Daily, thank you so much for being on brother.

It's good to be with you.

Granger, what what do you?

What do you?

What would you say is the main focus of your ministry?

Oh man, good question.

You know it's like of your five children, which one's the most important.

But we do we concentrate on five things every day walking into focus.

Evangelism, discipleship kind of at the base of everything we do.

Marriage, parenting, advocacy for children, which is ultrasound machines, abortion pill reversal, working with the pregnancy centers to you know, have greater and greater impact for that abortion minded woman to hopefully choose life.

And then finally culture, how to engage the culture.

And man, this is a time we need to engage culture, that's for sure.

You're not kidding, you know.

I would have accepted the answer of family.

That probably sums it up anything.

Family is in our wheelhouse.

I want to tell you something.

My family has has been influenced encouraged by Focus on the Family since I was born.

Focus on the Family started in nineteen seventy seven, is that right?

So that's right, nineteen seven.

I was born in seventy nine.

Okay, now, you're bragging.

So my mother has My mother literally raised me according to focus on the family, which is according to the Bible.

Yeah, I messaged her this morning and I said, I'm going to I'm going to interview the CEO Jim Daily to focus on the family.

What what what would you say to that?

What would you say about focus on the family?

And I'm going to play the just the voice text that she said.

I don't think I should say it.

I should just play it.

Okay, I'll try to say this without getting emotional.

But I was actually just thinking about it not too long ago after he passed away years years, years, and I would donate to the ministry, and I can remember one year we sent a huge donation because we had the funds at the time to do that.

And I'd just been sending like a monthly donation and they called me, had called me over the years and asked for prayer request that I might have, and I always said, please pray for my family, pray for my sons.

Well, so you could say that my mom gets emotional like that, but you could say that it was the prayers, a focus on the family.

I could give that that was.

A mom's heart right there, my man.

I mean, who doesn't want more prayer for their sons and daughters?

But sons for sure.

But that's great.

That's a mom's heart.

That's what we try to do every day, and I'm so kind of her to, you know, support focus and allow us to do the things we do.

So say hi to your mom for me.

I sure will, and she'll she'll definitely watch this.

You you mentioned earlier that we need the Gospel needs to be infiltrated into the culture more than more than ever.

I think.

So, you know, when I'm talking to friends, we're just lamenting the fact it feels like this can of divisiveness has opened up.

It feels bigger than ever before, and I think for that reason, most of us feel like we need to redouble our efforts, do more to reach out to hurting world, you know, so critical, and to help them know that we don't hate them.

There's no hate here.

There are prescriptions that work that we believe as Christians as we apply those things in our lives.

There's no formula.

People have free will.

Adam and Eve had free will.

But we want to make sure people informed about the reality of Jesus.

And I think so many people.

We got a note the other day from a man on Death Row who's been listening to Adventures and Odyssey, of all things, our children's radio drama, and he came to Christ through Adventures in Odyssey.

I mean there's reach, there's a changed heart this man on death Row.

That's remarkable.

But that's what the Lord can do.

And you know, there's nobody beyond the reach of God and that's what's most important to us.

I'm sure you have so many of those stories of story like that man.

Yeah, it's awesome.

I mean that's what life is all about, right, I mean figuring out where we're at, why we're here, what's my purpose?

Who am I in Christ?

What is this about?

And I just think, you know, Focus does a I think fairly good job of pulling that meaning together.

You know, even with Charlie Kirk, I loved Erica Kirk's comments at the memorial.

You know that his goal was to help young men figure it out, to be pursuing a marriage and having children and investing in those things that are eternal.

We couldn't agree more.

And I also loved her point that if Charlie were to ever run for president, his number one policy would be to help the American family.

And we get to walk in every day doing that.

It brought tears to my eyes actually because it is such a humbling thing to be able to do.

It certainly is.

And so all joking aside of your focus, and we know where your focus is.

But is there anything within the family you mentioned young men are men?

Is there anything that stands out more than other things?

As you guys get the staff together and you say, this is where we're going to really be looking this year to move the needle.

Well, I think for us, I mean I'm looking at a data point.

It came out a while back, but twenty five to thirty five year old men.

I think back in and five, it wasn't that long ago.

The number of married men between the ages of twenty five and thirty five, it was high.

It was like seventy five percent something like that.

Now it's down around thirty percent.

And that right there is the indication should be like a dashboard, you know, and the light the red light's going off.

Engine trouble, Engine trouble, because again, either through fear, through social pressure, social influence, young people are losing that aspirational idea that having a family, getting married, having children is a good thing.

I'm telling you, you end up sixty sixty five and alone in a big house, with the end of a big career and lots of money but nobody to spend it on.

That's a sad place.

And I think women right now are finding that.

There's articles.

I think sixty Minutes did a special on that.

And this was a big house, a mansion of a woman who shows a career over a family, and there were two or three others with her, if I recall correctly, and Diana Sawyer is asking them about pursuing the profession over the family, and they all broke into tears.

And I think, I think we're getting to this inflection point in the culture where maybe doing what men used to do isn't what we should be doing, and maybe we need to think again about what is our role.

Where do we derive our sense of self worth.

It's not under some guy's foot, that's not the design whatsoever.

But it's being happy in marriage and doing this together and raising a family and the ups and downs of that, like your mom praying for you boys, which is all part of it.

She's got to be proud of you now she is.

What a fascinating thought.

I remember recently seeing a documentary on Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, you know, at the time from a fleshly worldview, does it can you be any more manly?

And Arnold Schwarzenegger, And in the accomplishments that he's had not only in the sports world, but but then in the movie world and then in politics, you know, he just kind of achieved the greatest in all of these things.

And the documentary ends he's in a home alone in Idaho, without family.

He has neglected them all and he just has, you know, this big house and a few nice cars and nothing else to speak of.

It's I don't think there's anything more sad than to look at the trajectory of a life that achieves what man thinks is great.

And and Christ says the opposite.

He says, if any of you would be the greatest, he would be the one who serves Christ being the example of giving his life as a ransom for all.

Anyway, now, we often talk about that here at focus.

At the end of your life, who's going to be around your death bed.

It's not going to be your former employer, the business associates.

As you built a business, there might be a couple that stop by to say goodbye, but typically it's going to be your family that is there mourning the loss or the potential loss as you're in that hospital room.

And you know, I think so often people say, why don't we start with the end in mind?

It'd be great for twenty thirty year olds to start thinking about that.

You know, I think the power of media, the power of Hollywood and social media, and it's not just that, but it's again just this confluence and bombardment of what they think, they being the world think is important in life.

And I'm telling you everybody, it's usually one hundred and eighty degrees opposite.

It's not the big career that's wonderful, but build it together with someone, enjoy your life together, get married, have children.

I think my greatest regret we have two boys, twenty five and twenty three, but I regret not having more children.

And when I tell that to my boys, especially when they were little, they'd smile and go really, I'd say yes, because they couldn't believe with all the mayhem they were causing me.

Two boys, by the way, you can tell your mom, Trent and Troy.

But you know, there are rough spots, but we loved every minute of it, every second.

You know.

That's interesting because you just said that you're, you know, one of the key demographics that you're looking for and that you're looking to mold in shape happens to also be the same demographic as your two boys.

Yeah.

Yeah, Well, I'm learning a lot about gen Z.

I'm excited.

I'm hopeful.

You know, a lot of Christian leaders feel like, well, they don't know the word well enough and all those things, and that's true.

But you know what, neither did I in my twenties, and I'm guessing neither did they these older Christians.

I mean, it takes years to really understand the Word of God, and you don't even get there in your sixties and seventies.

You think you know it, but it just it's layer upon layer upon layer.

But I think I'm just excited for the next generation.

I think they're going to be living in an exciting time.

You're going to be living in an exciting time.

And I think the Lord's reading the hearts of people.

Even through Charlie Kirk's assassination, I think there's such a contrast between, you know, the rioting that occurred with George Floyd, the calmness.

You know, somebody said to me, you know they lit buildings on fire and those who love Charlie Kirk lit candles.

Wow.

Wow, what a thought.

What a contrast.

M You know, it really is and hopefully that's the spirit of God.

Amen.

I feel that same sentiment in so many ways.

And when someone comes as an elder at our church, when I see someone who it's twenty five, twenty six, a twenty six year old man come in, I want to go to him because that's you know, inside.

If I could pick a demographic that I'm looking for in our church, I'm looking for that guy.

Maybe he's newly married, or maybe he's single, but I want, I want to pour into that guy because he's our future.

And I think that that's that demographic gets lost in all the the different media out there that tells us how to be a man, or what to be a man, or what to look for in a man, and they just there's so much to latch onto that when one of those men walk in the church, I want to pour into him.

No, I agree, I think you got it.

And I'm seeing that and my sons and their friends, and you know, there is it's weird to think of this, but there is like a pendulum effect with the Holy Spirit.

I don't know what the Lord's doing all the time, but when things tend to get out of kilter and we're worried, even as Christians, you know, it says fear not, but it's hard not to fear.

And I think we fall into that trap being human and fallen in nature and you know, all of those things.

But it's like the Lord's got it, and we've got to build our confidence in the fact that it seems when things look as bleak as they can look, with everything that we've experienced through COVID, all of that stuff, and then somehow the Lord just turns his hand and the hearts of twenty somethings are beginning, especially males, are starting to say, what are we doing?

Where am I?

Who am I?

And I heard the other day their church attendance is up twenty percent in that age group twenty to thirty is up twenty twenty five percent in the last year or two.

That's encouraging.

Now on the other side, female participation in church ages twenty to thirty is down like seventeen percent, So it's really odd.

It's like young men are coming to church, young women are leaving the church.

But you know what, I think that's temporary.

I think if men lead those twenty somethings begin to lead, women will come back to church too.

No, you're you're exactly right.

And I would I would rather the trend to have that way.

I would.

I would rather say, bring them men in, let's train them up, Let's teach them what it means to be a man.

Let's teach it, teach them what it means to have purpose as as an image bearer of God, and the women will come and go.

I like this place.

I like this church.

You know that that's logic.

The opposite doesn't work as well.

A bunch of women coming to church younger and all the men are leaving.

That doesn't necessarily make it more attractive for the man to come.

You know, I think we've had a mess, and I think when men are derailed, the cultures derailed.

And not that we want to not help young women.

I mean that's we got to Yeah, not what we're saying, but we put the microscope on where young men are at You're absolutely right.

I mean, I think Jordan Peterson has attacked that very effectively.

Yes, when we talk about young men being privileged in the culture or society, even young white men, but just young men of every stripe, every color, and you look at it, he goes through a li need which I can't do.

But you know, we have men.

Young men have the highest suicide right, the greatest UH dropout numbers, those that don't complete college, those that don't go on for graduate degrees.

We are in a precarious position as twenty something young men.

And it's great that I think, by the hand of providence, by God's very hand, I mean, the hearts of young men is changing.

That's good.

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So you and I are going to think like minded on this question.

But but I'll tell you what I get quite a bit is a young couple saying should I have children?

Now?

Yes?

When I say yeah, yes.

I think so.

You know, you just you put into your head and Gene and I went through this.

She was doing a chemistry degree.

She's at UC Davis doing prevat.

I was working with International Paper at the time up in the Bay Area, and you know, we had it mapped out because we're really smart.

We were like twenty six, twenty seven, we had it mapped out.

You know, we're gonna work hard by the house, get Gene through VET school.

And you know, it didn't happen that way.

She didn't go to VET school.

We ended up getting married right at that point, and life took a different twist.

But you know what's so amazing, we always kind of delayed that decision because we felt we weren't financially in the right spot.

And when we got pregnant with our first born, we weren't ready.

Still, you're never going to be ready psychologically for that because you feel like you got to get all these ducks in a row.

I would just say, jump in, get into the deep end of the pool.

God will take care of it.

And I believe that, And especially for those that have family around them that can shoulder some of that burden, whatever it might be, that's even better.

But don't be afraid to have children.

Children and are a blessing.

It ends up being the biggest thing in life, right.

I remember meeting with presidents and senators and you know, heads of state, and I'd come home from that flight from DC and I'd come into my driveway, get out of my car and my boys would come out.

One would grab one leg, one the other leg, and I would monster walk into the front door with them hanging on my leg, and I just remember thinking to the Lord, Lord, this is so much better than being in that room of big wigs.

I'd rather be right here with my boys.

And I meant it.

I'm sure you did amen to that, and you would say that even when people say, but the cultures seems to be increasingly more and more evil, you would want to bring children into a world.

Like that absolutely, because God needs his people too to be engaged in changing evil into good.

You know Romans eight twenty eight, Make it happen.

You know, those things that are meant for evil, God will use for good.

So I think generally speaking, it's never an excuse.

There's really never an excuse not to have children in my mind.

And people are going to go, what, that guy's crazy, But it's true.

I'm sixty four now with my two boys in their twenties.

That's how late we had our boys.

And you know, if I could go back, that's what I would do is I'd love to have four or five kids or more.

That'd be great.

But I would encourage young people not to be afraid, especially if you have again support around you.

You've got your in laws and your mom and dad that's always great, and brothers and sisters that can help out in a pinch with babysitting issues or things.

They're real practical stuff.

But at the end of your life, going all the way back to that comment, that's who's going to be around your bedside saying I love your dad.

And man, you know, people will often meditate on esther for this, the famous passage of who knows if God had you for such a time as this?

You know, yeah, who knows?

But you know, that's what really grieves my heart About the issue of abortion, which my mom considered aborting me.

My dad talked her out of it.

It was legal.

I was born in sixty one, but abortion.

My mom was forty two when she had me, and for any woman over forty in California, where I was born, a woman could choose an abortion just for medical reasons and they would do it.

People don't remember that.

And my dad was the one who talked my mom out of aborting me, My alcoholic father and they ended up divorcing when I was five and I had a lot of headwinds in this life.

My mom died at nine, my dad at eleven.

But I think for people that support abortion, they would look at my life and say, you should have never been born, Your mom should have aborted you.

This poor white family and southern cow who has the right to say that to anybody?

And from my perspective being from a poor family, the fifth born to a forty two year old mom, you know, yeah, look what the Lord has done.

And I think every child should have chance.

It shouldn't be just to determined on the whim of a woman or a man pressuring a woman to say we we can't do this, get an abortion.

We had a Super Bowl ad with Tim Tebow in twenty ten, and you know, our hope was just that people would think of life.

And so he had a you know, Pam was pregnant with Tim, his mom, Pam, and it was diagnosed as a tumor.

His his body and her body is diagnosed as a tumor, and you know, he's not going to be your baby's not going to be healthy.

He's going to have all these problems.

Tim Tebow probably one of the strongest quarterbacks who ever played the game, and you know it just we did that Super Bowl ad and a woman who was being told by her boyfriend she was pregnant while she's watching the Super Bowl.

You know, you got to get an abortion or I'm going to kill myself.

Think of a woman in that position.

And she saw the ad, went to the website, watched it over and over again, finally contacted us.

We got her connected to a pregnancy resource center where she could go.

She had the baby, Avida.

We know we're here at Focus on the family's baby Avida.

The three point seven million dollars Super Bowl ad saved your life.

You know, it's just awesome.

We had her, We had the mom and her on stage and brought Pam and Tim Tebow out.

Neither knew the other was going to be there, instant friendship between the mom and Pam Tebow and you know, just an amazing, amazing night out in California with you know, focused supporters watching and little Avida, who then at that point I think was thirteen, Wow, and just got loved on by people.

That's life.

That's what we're talking about.

Give that child a chance, don't snuff he or hers life out before they even have a chance to beat the odds like I beat the odds.

That's not for others to decide.

That's for that person and for God Almighty to decide how their life is going to unfold.

So you mentioned that this woman reached out to Focus on the Family.

Let's give me the ways that people could reach out or the ways to find you, the ways to listen on the radio or yeah man podcasts.

If you have a smartphone, you can download the Focus on the Family Broadcast app.

Get access to everything basically audio that we do, which is the broadcast, the podcast.

We have marriage podcasts, parenting podcasts.

We've got age and stage parenting help that you just as a parent go in and put your child's birthday and year in there and we age it.

We send you information every week telling you how to deal with a two year old, or a five year old or a fifteen year old, all free.

You just got to go up and sign up at Focus on the Family dot com, or you can do that by calling one eight hundred a family and it's that easy.

Focus on the Family dot Com doesn't get much easier, and there's so much free stuff here.

That's what we just want to encourage families to do well, marriages, to hold together, push through the tough times, love the kids, raise the kids in a tender, loving environment.

Truth and love and again, all predictive things, not guarantees their formulas.

But we think you'll have a predictably good outcome if you raise kids and marry each other and love each other the way the Bible says too, in.

An indirect way, through the Lord.

I was raised through focus on the family because my mom did just those things.

She got the newsletters, she got the phone calls.

She like, she said in the message, she was actually shocked that they would continue to reach out to her to say, how could we pray for your family?

You know, in that context so many times we call it the DR, the donor relationship area and the DR team.

As they do those outbound calls, you'd be surprised and how often they call to say, hey, we're just calling to say thanks for your gift, and how can we pray for you?

And people said, I just had a tragedy this morning, I lost my husband.

I'm telling you guys, I mean, it's amazing how often they're calling at exactly the right time when someone is in peril.

There's something going on in their life.

That is tough, and we're blessed to do it.

I mean, that's the way it should work.

And of course these people are putting the fuel into the engine here at Focus on the Family to make it all happen.

Last year, we had two hundred and ninety two thousand people except Christ through Focus on the Family, and I'm just so blessed by that.

We had something like one hundred and forty thousand marriages helped through a crisis.

We had one hundred and sixty thousand parents helped through a So we're swinging away as hard and fast as we can to help marriages hold together and help families do well.

Of course, the motto here is, you know, to help families thrive in Christ.

Doesn't get any better than that.

No, No, amen, mister Daily, Thank you brother for the work you've done for many years through Focus on the Family and all your staff and team there.

It's an honor to have this conversation with you.

Granger, Thank you and give your mom a big hug.

Sure well, brother, thank you, bye bye.

Thank you so much for hanging out with me on this episode of the Grangersmith podcast.

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