Paul Random

Call Your Mother While You Still Can

According to the most recent statistics, there are upwards of 85 million mothers in America.

Motherhood has changed quite a bit over the years. Compared with past generations, fewer of them are married, they tend to delay having children, have fewer of them, and are more likely to work outside the home.

Contrast a mother in 2025 with one in 1955, and there’s a good chance their lifestyles will vary, and by a lot. Moms in the 50s probably didn’t stop at Starbucks, wear yoga pants, go to the gym, or post photographs on Facebook.

But you can be sure mothers were and are equally devoted to their children, gladly and readily sacrifice for them, lose sleep over them, and fervently pray for their well being.

Gaspard Mermillod, a 19th century Swiss bishop, said it well:

“A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.”

Mothers are irreplaceable. They care us inside their body for the first nine months and then carry us in their hearts and minds every day until they die.

As we prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, and if you’re blessed to still have your mom with you this side of eternity, you might be struggling or even burdened to find her the right gift. You know best, but here’s an idea. Instead of focusing on honoring your mother this weekend, commit to honoring her the other 364 days of the year too.

It’s interesting that God commands us to honor our father and mother, and even before telling us not to murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness or covet (Exodus 20:12-17). We’re told that doing so doesn’t just honor them, but also help us “live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).

Tragically, we’ve seen an increase in adult children estranging themselves from their parents. In rare cases, this could be due to personal safety concerns. In most other instances, it’s due to a personal grievance, a political or theological difference of opinion, or unresolved bitterness. It’s often due more to a misunderstanding than some malevolently motivated behavior.

Since we’re focused on moms this week, perhaps the very best way to honor your mother is to live in a manner that reflects the ideals and principles she taught you from the very beginning.

In this age of texting, call your mother. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation, but you might not fully appreciate how much she enjoys hearing your voice. She thinks about you more than you realize, prays for you when you’re sleeping, worries about you when you’re awake – and loves any opportunity to talk with you and hear about your life.

You can’t thank your mother enough. She doesn’t need to hear the words, but is happy when she does.

Share good memories with your mom – maybe the first one or even the last one. It tells her she made a positive impression. Everybody likes to be remembered. It might not be the traditional high points but instead a picnic in the neighborhood park, a conversation over breakfast, maybe the car ride to church or your Little League game. It’s often the serendipitous moments that create the most lasting memories.

Mothers feel our pains and share our joys. Sons or daughters can give their moms both. 

The day is coming when you won’t be able to call your mom, stop in for a visit, or write her a note. But if she’s still alive, you still can – and you should.

Image from Shutterstock.

This is Why Home Schooling is Soaring

A disturbing video is now circulating of three students making a rhyming, vulgar presentation in a classroom in which they curse Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) and give the middle finger to police officers.

They recite, “We all are not thugs and we all deserve hugs. Some of us can’t even crush bugs. We have might so we must fight, protest for our rights, look at the future and set our sights. F%$# ICE.”

At the conclusion of the unhinged and juvenile rant, the students take a bow and others in the class applaud their performance.

The three minors appear to be middle school age. Neither their identities nor the name of the school is disclosed.

Most of us remember the stress of school presentations. Whether a science project or some other oral report, getting up in front of peers can always induce anxiety. But imagine standing before your teacher and not only using profanity but denigrating law enforcement – and earning the cheers of those in the room?

It’s no wonder home schooling is on the rise.

There are approximately 3.7 million students in the United States currently being educated at home, an increase of approximately 600,000 since 2022.

“I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn,” observed Albert Einstein.

Concern over the social and spiritual conditions of the public school are driving many parents to abandon traditional educational venues. The type of radical indoctrination we see in this disturbing video sums up the broader concerns of today’s classrooms.

Healthy homes provide a wonderful environment for children to learn at their own pace. Instead of having to sit in a desk for hours at a time, boys and girls can comfortably stretch out on the family room floor. Active boys can get up and work out some of their natural energy. The world becomes the classroom. Hikes become science lessons, vacations can become history lessons. A trip to the bank can double as a math exercise.

Home schooling provides children with an opportunity to receive personalized teaching. The “one-size fits all” model of traditional education may serve some but certainly not all.

Watching these students trash our brave and courageous men and women serving in law enforcement, one is left with the obvious and distinct impression that their being served daily doses of poisonous propaganda.

Socially conservative Christian mothers and fathers with students enrolled in radical school districts face an almost impossible task. Their children spend upwards of seven to eight hours a day being brainwashed by teachers and administrators who are likely contradicting nearly everything these parents are saying and teaching at home. It’s an all-out battle for the heart and mind. It takes a mighty strong child to resist such a steady psychological onslaught.

Home schoolers represent America’s best hope to reclaim a runaway culture. We see them thriving as students and professionals, courageous individuals who are willing to go against the grain. They’re willing to reject lies, champion truth, and defend and protect the very individuals and institution taking fire from the radical extremists who have wrestled away authority from those who once served the best interest of students.

The more home schoolers America produces, the healthier America will be.

Image from X.

The Babylon Bee is Helping Win the War on Woke

Seth Dillon, CEO of the Christian satire site, The Babylon Bee, likes to quote G.K. Chesterton, the famed English writer and apologist.

“Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle,” the popular 20th century author once observed.

Since purchasing the Bee in 2018, Dillon and his colleagues have used satire to help tell the truth and get people’s attention. This approach brings to mind radio legend Rush Limbaugh’s mantra and penchant for “Demonstrating absurdity by being absurd.”

In doing so, Dillon and the Bee are doing more than most to combat the ridiculousness that radicals have been increasingly trying to pass off as normal.

The Bee CEO was a fan of the site before he contracted to buy it. A friend alerted him to the fledgling project. The first story he ever read was headlined, “Holy Spirit Unable to Move Through Congregation as Fog Machine Breaks.”

“It was a funny inside joke that you get if you know the church world, which I did because my dad is a pastor,” he said. “They were inside jokes that were funny and witty, and it wasn’t cheesy comedy.”

Humor has long been an effective rhetorical device in culture. Politicians, pastors, teachers and everyday people have used it since the beginning of time to both engage, communicate – and persuade.

The Bee’s style of satire will often exaggerate a story to make a point – a tactic that has infuriated groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center. The antagonistic left-wing group accused the site of “amplifying far-right rhetoric and disinformation.”

Snopes, the so-called fact-checking website, actually took the time and effort to label over 30 of the Bee’s stories as “False.”

Only 30? It’s satire after all.

Critics like to claim the satirical site has a habit of sowing confusion, that people regularly mistake their fiction for fact. Yet even that charge should cause some measure of self-reflection. If the absurd is believed possible, what does that say about the group’s state? To be fair, the real pain point for radicals stems from just how often Babylon Bee stories wind up coming true.

In fact, the satirical site has catalogued many of their “fulfilled prophecies” over the years. These include a story suggesting Merriam Webster was updating the definition of “fascism” to be “Anything one agrees with.” Three years later the publication did just that.

In June of 2020, Bee writers claimed, “New, Less Problematic History Books Will Only Include What Happened in the Current Year.” By August, community leaders in Illinois expressed a desire to abolish history lessons in schools.”

In this age of trying to normalize the abnormal, Seth Dillon and his team of writers are providing a critical service. It’s been said that one of the most effective weapons against dictators isn’t bombs or other traditional tools of warfare, but mockery.

Christians may be uncomfortable with the idea of mockery, but it’s important to point out that the Bee is often mocking bad ideas or irrational beliefs. When USA Today named Dr. Rachel Levine, a man who is pretending to be a woman and who was Assistant Secretary for Health, as “Woman of the Year,” the Bee responded by naming Levine “Man of the Year.”

Seth Dillon pointed out they weren’t mocking Levine but rather USA Today.

In an insightful video for PragerU, Dillon asks:

“How did we get to the point where it’s considered hateful to tell the truth, even in jest? The answer is simple. We took ideas too seriously. The absurd has become sacred because it hasn’t been sufficiently mocked.”

According to Dillon, mockery should be used as “A tool to expose foolishness for what it is so that it isn’t taken seriously. Mockery of this kind is not only cleansing, it’s a moral imperative. Why? Because bad ideas have catastrophic consequences.”

Dillon concludes, saying, “People think we’re improved morally because we make fun of fewer things. The truth is we’re more confused than ever because we’ve affirmed and accepted what should have been ridiculed and rejected.”

This regular drumbeat of pointing out the absurd is having an impact. The New York Post, the popular tabloid, runs a weekly Best of the Babylon Bee in the paper and online. Bee web traffic has skyrocketed. Social media sites that once banned their posts are allowing more people to see their stories.

In the end, Chesterton was right once again.

“A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true,” he observed.

Radicals, take note.

Why did Trump Justice Department ask to Dismiss Abortion Pill Lawsuit?

Pro-lifers were taken aback on Monday with news the Justice Department has asked to dismiss a lawsuit restricting access to the abortion pill over health and safety concerns.

The lawsuit in question, which was originally filed in 2022 by pro-life doctors, was rejected by the Supreme Court back in June of 2024 for lack of standing. A revised suit was initiated later in the year by three state attorneys in Missouri, Idaho and Kansas.

In the lawsuit, attorneys are requesting a myriad of changes that have led to the explosive and reckless growth of mifepristone – an expansion that exponentially increases the health risk to women in addition to the certain death of their preborn children.

For example, current rules don’t require women to see a doctor in person, and even nurse practitioners and other healthcare workers can prescribe the toxic, deadly drug. This lethal pharmaceutical cocktail is being sent through the mail and, in many cases, available at your neighborhood drugstore where you buy eye drops and greeting cards.

The New York Times reports:

The Trump administration’s request makes no mention of the merits of the case, which have not yet been considered by the courts. Rather, echoing the argument that the Biden administration made shortly before Mr. Trump took office, the court filing asserts that the case does not meet the legal standard to be heard in the federal district court in which it was filed.

The Times goes on to quote Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California Davis, as suggesting the Trump administration may not be signaling its objection to the merits of the lawsuit but rather strategizing their next move regarding its opposition to the drug.

“I think the best way to read it is that they’re just buying time to figure out what to do about mifepristone,” she said. Professor Ziegler noted the request to dismiss the suit “avoids saying anything on the substance at all.”

On Monday, Senator Steve Daines of Montana noted the study released last week detailing the health dangers of mifepristone.

“The science is clear: The abortion pill is not safe for women, and it never has been,” he said in a statement. “This recent study is proof that pro-abortion advocates care more about promoting their radical agenda than they do about women’s health.”

But just because the Trump Justice Department requests the lawsuit be dismissed doesn’t necessarily mean the federal judge assigned to the case will oblige.

Judge Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk, who is overseeing the suit and who serves as a United States district judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017.

Back in 2023, the New York Times and other liberal activists pointed out that Judge Kacsmaryk didn’t use the language of the left in his original ruling on the case:

Throughout the opinion, Judge Kacsmaryk uses the language of the anti-abortion movement instead of conventional medical terms. The ruling calls medication abortion “chemical abortion,” refers to abortion providers as “abortionists” and describes a fetus or embryo as an “unborn human” or “unborn child.” By contrast, a conflicting ruling by a judge in Washington State that barred the F.D.A. from limiting the availability of mifepristone used terminology like “the termination of an early pregnancy,” “fetal loss” and “patients and providers.”

While jarring that the current Justice Department is asking for a lawsuit against the abortion pill be dismissed, time will soon reveal where the administration lands on the larger issue at hand. If previous action is indicative of future behavior, pro-lifers should be able to trust that the current administration will act in a way consistent with efforts to protect preborn life.

The proliferation of the abortion pill poses a monumental threat to not only the children it’s designed to kill, but to the mothers who are ingesting it. Please join us in praying for wisdom and boldness of action in addressing the use and abuse of this dangerous abortifacient.

Kevin O’Leary: Forget About Divorce and Fall in Love All Over Again

Kevin O’Leary, aka “Mr. Wonderful,” the Canadian businessman and television personality best known for starring on Shark Tank, has some battle-tested marriage advice for anyone considering a divorce.

“Why don’t you just fall in love with your wife or husband all over again and forget about it?”

Married to Linda since 1990, the O’Leary’s 35-year union, which has had its share of challenges, has produced two children, Trevor and Savannah.

“We’ve been married a long time, and I always tell people it’s not a destination, marriage is a journey — and I think you have to have a lot of respect for your spouse … no question,” Kevin once shared.

Ever frugal, the couple married at home and served pizza and beer to guests.

“We saved a fortune,” he recalled. “I was able to put it [the savings] in my business to start growing it.”

O’Leary was interviewed on Fox and Friends this past weekend where he shared talking with divorce lawyers while researching a new book.

“I thought infidelity was the reason people got divorced,” he shared. ‘Most marriages end after five years – fifty percent of them – and it turns out it has nothing to do with infidelity. It has everything to do with financial stress.”

He added, “When one partner outspends the other, that’s why you get divorced.”

To be sure, O’Leary is oversimplifying to make a make a point. People get divorced for all kinds of reasons. In addition to infidelity and financial woes, marriages fall apart because of selfishness, domestic abuse, poor communication, and a lack of sexual intimacy.

Sometimes it’s one of those and other times it’s all of those.

Kevin O’Leary is approaching this debate from a secular and even practical point of view. During his conversation with the Fox News hosts, he likened marriage to a business partnership. He noted that divorce will divide assets and force parties to start all over again. The famed investor went on to suggest it makes more sense to work things out rather than begin anew.

“The most important thing I’ve learned from my marriage, is just get married once,” he recently shared. “You make the assumption the grass is greener on the other side, that’s never the case. I have lots of friends who have been divorced three or four times, and they’re not any happier than I am. You want to build a family, you want to keep it together, you want to focus on those relationships.” 

Of course, as Christians, we don’t see marriage as transactional, but a sacred covenant created by God and designed to model and demonstrate the love Christ has for all His people.

Yet, whatever the motivation, Kevin O’Leary’s conclusion about how to deal with a troubled marriage points in the right direction. His instincts are to try and heal it rather than abandon the commitment and try again. That’s not to say there aren’t biblical reasons to divorce, but when other issues irritate and threaten to separate, it’s the wise man or woman who aims to fall in love with their spouse all over again.

Focus on the Family’s Hope Restored ministry is designed to help couples heal longtime hurts and get to a place where love can be rekindled and reignited. The success rate is north of eighty percent. Our retreat centers are located in Missouri, Michigan, Georgia and Texas. Another center will soon be open in Arizona. 

If you or someone you know if facing a marital crisis, please know we’re here to help.