Giving Thanks

November 2003

Dear Friends:

Greetings from Focus on the Family! Like many of you, the staff here is preparing to gather with friends and family at the end of the month to celebrate Thanksgiving. As we look forward to this important observance and consider what it means to be truly thankful, I thought it would be appropriate to share an excerpt from a moving letter that we recently received here at headquarters. Here, in part, is what it said:

I've heard Dr. Dobson say that your goal is to touch families — you've certainly touched mine! In 1978, I was a homeless single mom with two young children. I left the streets and entered the family of God. With no home and no discipline, my strong-willed little boy had become like a wild animal. Your books gave me direction, hope, help and strength. Now my 32-year-old son tells everyone that if I had not disciplined him and brought him up in the church, he would have ended up either in jail or dead. He loves and serves our Lord, and I have seven grandchildren who all know Jesus. God bless you!

This dear lady's letter, and others like it, are extremely gratifying because they speak right to the heart of our mission here at Focus on the Family. In emphasizing practical issues such as marriage and parenting, our ultimate goal is to help individuals deepen their relationships with Christ or, in many cases, to introduce them to Him for the first time. That's what we're all about. Of course, it would be foolish for us to attempt to take credit for "success stories" such as the one above. We know that God alone can bring true hope and healing to those who are hurting. Our desire is simply to be willing vessels through which He can accomplish His purposes, and we are tremendously grateful for the opportunities He has opened up for us to do just that. Not only at Thanksgiving, but also throughout the year, we are thankful that He has allowed our meager efforts to play a small part in His greater plan.

If you've been reading my monthly letters and listening to the "Focus on the Family" broadcast of late, you might have concluded that this ministry's primary emphasis is public policy. Between our efforts to oppose the legalization of homosexual "marriage" and the ongoing controversy over religious liberty (epitomized by the removal of the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama state courthouse in August), I have devoted a great deal of airtime and print space in recent months to the critical moral issues being played out in our culture.

In reality, only 5 percent of this ministry's total budget is allocated to public policy, while the remaining 95 percent is devoted to more basic family issues such as parenting, marriage and so on. In many ways, our emphasis on basic family issues is inseparable from the emphasis on policy-related matters that has been the focal point of my letters in recent months. Few could deny that, as Christians, we are involved in a battle for the very soul of the next generation — a battle that some have called the "civil war of values." It has been said that wars are fought on two fronts: the battlefront and the home front. When Focus on the Family addresses issues such as homosexual "marriage," judicial tyranny, abortion or any of the other topics that are currently being debated in the arena of public policy, we are fighting on the battlefront — the highly visible venue in which the struggle between godless postmodernism and the Judeo-Christian worldview is carried out.

However, we are keenly aware that the civil war of values will not ultimately be won on the battlefront, but on the home front. While we certainly hope and pray that our courts, government, media and other institutions will turn around and once again embrace moral values, we realize that change must first come at the individual level. If the family is to survive, and if the gospel of Jesus Christ is to move forward in this great nation, it will not happen as the result of any law or policy being enacted. Rather, spiritual renewal will come because individual families, grounded in the truth of God's Word, are actively engaged in defending those values and living them out on a daily basis. True change is only possible if, through God's intervention, today's young parents are equipped with the tools necessary to raise their children to be the principled leaders of tomorrow. Right now, the culture is at war with us, and the situation on the battlefront looks grim. However, we can win the war if we will bolster our defenses on the home front.

As an expression of heartfelt gratitude to the Lord for the opportunities He has placed before us, I would like to devote the remainder of this letter to sharing an update on some of our outreach endeavors. In the process, you'll hear a few comments from people whom the Lord has touched through our efforts. Despite the turmoil raging all around us in the culture, God has enabled Focus on the Family to make a dramatic impact on hurting individuals and families in a variety of situations. Needless to say, we are deeply thankful for the opportunities He has laid before us and for the friends and supporters who help make it possible for us to embrace those opportunities.

Whenever I present an update on the positive developments taking place around Focus, our international outreach frequently tops the list. That is because there is always something new and exciting to share in this arena! Around the globe, doors are opening for us at an astounding rate, and we are earnestly endeavoring to make the most of each opportunity. This year saw our 90-second radio commentaries, which are heard in 49 countries, translated into Arabic and aired on Radio Ninevah in Iraq! (One of our goals for 2004 is to get these same segments aired on Iraqi National Radio.) Also in 2003, our associate office in the Netherlands conducted a Heritage Builders conference that was presented to 10,000 people. It seems that wherever you look on the map, good things are happening: the Taiwanese version of Focus on the Family magazine is mailed to 48,000 homes each month; our Australian associate office's "How to Drug Proof Your Kids" curriculum has impacted more than 28,000 Australian parents and received national recognition; our Focus on the Family Southern Africa office has provided support to children who have been abandoned or orphaned as a result of the AIDS epidemic; and our "Life is Sacred" seminar has been presented to members of the Costa Rican congress.

All told, we now have associate offices up and running in 19 different countries. We regularly receive testimonies from people all over the world who have promised to remain abstinent until marriage through our "No Apologies Abstinence" campaign; whose marriages have been strengthened as a result of our materials; or who have committed their lives to Christ for the first time after attending one of our seminars. This outreach is particularly exciting because our international budget can be stretched and invested to reach an even greater number of people overseas than would be possible using the same funds right here in the U.S. We praise God for this amazing opportunity to reach out with biblical principles that transcend the barriers of language and culture.

Another component of our ministry for which we are particularly thankful this year is our Internet outreach. As with our international endeavors, the Internet has proven to be a cost-effective means of reaching large numbers of people. Moreover, it allows us to target audience groups, such as teens, young professionals and especially unchurched families, who might not otherwise be aware of the outreach of Focus on the Family.

Our primary vehicle for reaching a secular audience is our TroubledWith.com Web site. This online destination offers in-depth articles and resources on a number of difficult subjects affecting families, from debt and divorce to sexual addiction and eating disorders. Although the articles are based on biblical principles, they do not contain a great deal of spiritual content that might alienate certain segments of our audience. At the same time, those who are willing to "dig deeper" into the issues they're facing will find that the TroubledWith site also links to the main Focus site and other resources that contain a decidedly Christian flavor.

The response to this outreach has been tremendously encouraging thus far, particularly from Christians who are looking for a resource that might help their non-Christian friends. The following two excerpts from letters to the ministry are particularly uplifting in this regard:

Just wanted to let you know how you were an answer to prayer. I have an unsaved friend that is struggling with an affair and what to do about his marriage. I have been praying for God to give me a tool to reach out to him. Then I read the monthly newsletter and [Dr. Dobson] mentioned [the "TroubledWith"] site for nonbelievers. Thank you. God is so good! He never lets us down when we ask for help.

I'm writing to thank you for www.troubledwith.com! My husband and I recently learned that our teenager had become sexually active. We were angry, hurt, disappointed and at a loss for how to respond. But when we logged on to the site, we found an article that gave us direction and confirmation about handling the circumstances with wisdom and grace.

Elsewhere in the online world, our flagship site, family.org, saw more than 24,000,000 unique visitor sessions this year. And that is only the beginning! Our Web team operates over 20 separate Web sites geared toward both Christian and secular audiences. Internet technology enables us to disseminate information with an accuracy and efficiency that would have been unheard of only a few years ago. For example, this past August, we were able to send e-mails to 50,000 friends and supporters in the Montgomery, Alabama area to alert them about the "Restore the Foundation" rally at the state Judicial Center. As you know from last month's letter, I spoke at that gathering in support of Chief Justice Roy Moore and his determination to display a monument depicting the Ten Commandments. Through e-mail updates and our Web site, we were able to keep concerned citizens across the country up to date on the latest developments in the battle against judicial tyranny.

There are a number of other worthy projects that have been blessed by the Lord this year, but in the interest of space, I will mention only one more. Our Young Family Outreach, which represents our effort to connect with a new generation of parents and their children, grew by leaps and bounds in 2003. Much of the expansion came through our "Focus on Your Child" membership program and Web site (focusonyourchild.com), which are designed to provide the best parenting information available for busy families that might not otherwise seek out Christian parenting tools. A number of young parents have already written in to let us know how much they have benefited as a result of the Focus on Your Child program. Here is what a few of them have said:

The past several months I have been swimming in confusion with no direction at all. Now that this Focus on Your Child program is at my disposal, I feel like I can get some perspective and direction on what I am doing with my dear little ones.

It was not until today that I just happened to have a few moments and cruised by your "Focus on Your Child" Web site. This is exactly what I needed to help teach my children of the love of Jesus.

This new Focus on Your Child program is, in my opinion, one of the best resources that you have to offer. Words cannot express my thankfulness. Focus on the Family is in my prayers daily.

Our goal for 2003 was to expand the Focus on Your Child program to accommodate 25,000 families. However, by September, more than 37,000 had already signed up! And over a six-month period, the focusonyourchild.com Web site received more than 250,000 unique visitor sessions. Our goal for 2004 is to have 75,000 families enrolled in the Focus on Your Child membership program, and to reach as many as five million young families through our Web site and other materials.

Perhaps more than any of the other blessings the Lord has bestowed upon Focus this year, the growth of our Young Family Outreach is particularly exciting to me. In light of our culture's continued rejection of Judeo-Christian values, nothing could be more important than reaching the hearts and minds of the young families that are just getting started in an environment that is hostile to them. The younger generation is continually bombarded with the message that marriage is irrelevant; that sexual behavior that the Bible labels as sinful is actually normal; and that humans evolved from primordial ooze and are now simply adrift in a world devoid of moral absolutes. The intense initial interest in our Young Family Outreach is proof positive that those who are raising children are rejecting those messages and looking for marriage and parenting advice that is biblically based. And that is one of the many reasons why, despite the current national climate that is decidedly hostile to the institution of the family, I believe we have reason to give thanks. In my November letter two years ago, just weeks after the deadly terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania, I wrote about the Pilgrims and the incredible suffering they endured as they endeavored to create a new way of life for themselves on the shores of North America. Their journey across the Atlantic in the fall of 1620 had been grueling, and their first winter here tested the limits of human endurance. In fact, more than half of the original passengers from the Mayflower died by the spring of 1621. But even those harsh conditions could not break the first settlers' faith in God. They believed that He had called them here, and they refused to give up and return to England. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1621, the survivors gathered with the local Native Americans in what has come to be known as the very first Thanksgiving celebration.

It seems clear that, throughout our history, times of intense turmoil and suffering have given rise to outpourings of thanks and praise to the Lord. The Pilgrims did so in response to their first agonizing year in America. Similarly, the very first "official" Thanksgiving Day was observed on the eve of the Civil War, one of the bloodiest conflicts in American history. Americans turned to God in humility and thanksgiving in the difficult days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and they must continue to do so now as our nation grapples with the crisis in postwar Iraq. And although the "civil war of values" to which I have referred is of a spiritual and moral — rather than physical — nature, it is no less serious. I believe that, even as we pray for God's intervention, we must also thank Him for the countless blessings He has bestowed upon us. The cultural climate might not be to our liking at this point in history, but that is no excuse for us not to recognize the fact that our God is infinitely good, wise and deserving of our utmost thanks and praise.

In closing, I'd like to share something that C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter dated August 10, 1958: "We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is 'good,' because it is good, if 'bad,' because it works in us patience, humility and the contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country." This year, as you gather with your loved ones around the Thanksgiving table, I hope you'll thank the Lord not only for the positive blessings in your lives, but also for the challenging and difficult things, which in themselves can be blessings. From our "family" to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,

James C. Dobson, Ph.D.
Founder and Chairman

P.S. Although I have emphasized three specific outreach efforts in this letter, there are actually many important ministries being carried forth on a daily basis here at Focus. We have outreaches geared toward pastors, physicians, grandparents, pregnancy care center directors, CEOs, single parents, teenagers and college students, to name but a few. Needless to say, there is considerable expense involved in maintaining these critical projects, each of which is vying for a vital piece of our ministry budget. If you have met your obligations to your local church, and if you feel led to make an investment in our efforts to strengthen families and share the love of Christ around the world, we would love to hear from you.