May, 2021

• 3 May

  Gain Through Loss

  

  There are times when we have to give up something we love in order to gain a better thing. As the spring of 1781 brought muskets ringing in the air and the angry voices of Redcoats to South Carolina, Rebecca Brewton Motte chose to give something up that she wanted ...

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April, 2021

• 26 April

  Wisdom Is Always Worth the Lesson

  

  I was four years old in 1969 when Mom decided it was time for me to attend our local nursery school several mornings a week. In those days there was no pre-kindergarten, but nursery school served much the same purpose. I was apprehensive, like most of the little children meeting ...

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• 19 April

  When Looks Don’t Count for Much

  

  Remember “the look” from childhood? It could be scary, but it could also be a strong deterrent from getting into mischief or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Most of our parents were really good at it! Teachers often had some of those same looks, turning their attention ...

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• 5 April

  Our Faith, the Victor

  

  Consider the life of a pioneer wife. They rose before the sun, often weary from the last day’s work. They pinned their long hair back from their faces, dressed in their layers, and pulled on an apron to start another day. Many of them had traveled long journeys just to ...

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March, 2021

• 29 March

  Strength from the Heel Marks

  

  The local newspapers of the early 20th century were filled with town gossip, wedding announcements, death notices, and stories of gay parties. When my great grandparents packed all of their belongings, leaving Illinois for a rural life in northern Indiana in the spring of 1912, they received a lovely farewell ...

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• 22 March

  Greed: The Adult-Sized Monster

  

  Remember the monsters of childhood, those dark figures with long, spindly fingers, or the giant, hairy beasts that popped out from behind a closet door or a tree in your backyard? The illusive boogey man has terrified children around the world since the 1500s. I remember stories about this dark, ...

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• 15 March

  We Wait in Hope

  

  Traveling across the sea to foreign ports in search of fabrics, teas, shoes, and the fine wines of France, must have seemed a romantic venture to the young mariner in 19th century America!  But for the wife of a seaman, the romance of a sea life was as far away ...

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• 8 March

  They Shall Live Again

  

  Springtime has always brought the promise of new life and the end of another brown, barren Illinois winter. The first tulips begin to pop open; trees get their first, almost invisible green buds, and soon, green grass springs up to carpet over the brown stuff on the ground. I remember ...

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• 1 March

  How to Have God’s Ear

  

  Abigail Smith was lively, opinionated, and intuitive from her youth. She was just 15 when her future husband, John Adams, first laid eyes on her. He was drawn to Abigail’s qualities from the beginning. When they married in 1744, she had his ear in the decisions he would be faced ...

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February, 2021

• 22 February

  How to Live Between Picnics

  

  In the days of the Victorian era, a picnic in the English countryside was a fine affair. Baskets were carefully packed with meats such as lamb and beef, often put between hearty pieces of wheat bread and garnished with cheeses, lettuce, and celery. Drinks included lemonade and ginger-beer, as well ...

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