Happiness bubbles up quickly when things are going well, yet it is a fickle feeling that plummets just as quickly. Joy is something deeper– an assurance of what will be,  because God has promised it. The tides of life that sweep happiness away cannot steal true joy from the soul. ...

My dad really saved things—old gas receipts from 1960, the bill for my sister’s birth in 1968 ($160), his yearbook from 1947, and a war ration booklet from 1942 that belonged to my grandfather.  Ration booklets held stamps that Americans had to shop with to purchase rationed items such as ...

Most of us cannot remember a time when we have seen our daily lives halted as we are seeing today. It is truly a time of trial for our country, and our world, as this invisible virus continues to make people ill.   This new germ keeps us on edge, along ...

The first lady needed a friend, someone who would be trustworthy and caring, with her best interests at heart. Mary Todd Lincoln found that friend in her dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley. Madame Elizabeth, as she was known, was a gifted seamstress; her mother having taught her as a young girl. She ...

Musikalisch means musical in German, and my German grandfather truly was musically gifted. He never took a music lesson but played piano, drums, banjo, and ukulele very well. In 1930, when swing music played by the big bands was all the rage, he started his own 10-piece band in our ...