These are hard words. They're easy to say, and easy to ask for, but much harder to give—at least sometimes. I'm convinced that, much of the time, I'm just about the most easy-going person in the world. At least, I feel like the most easy-going person I know. But other times...

What happened to the "functional" family? You know, the one with a Dad and a Mom and children centered around the home, doing the things families do: working together, playing together, laughing and sometimes crying together.

It was just a faded snapshot, a long-forgotten picture of my grandfather and his three sons, leaning on their vintage car in front of the family's farmhouse in the Arkansas Delta. It must have been about 1933 or 1934.

A hearty laugh is good for us.  Something truly funny, that tickles our "funny bone" and causes us to laugh out loud, has a calming, stress-relieving effect on us as human beings.  Scientific studies have shown the benefit of hilarity and good humor on our health and well-being.  And yet, much of what passes for humor today has a bite to it or the laugh is at the expense of someone else. You might say, "Laughter, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, so what difference does it make?"

By 1957, J. Paul Getty had become the wealthiest American alive and lived in almost unimaginable luxury. But, even Getty‘s phenomenal wealth seems insignificant when compared to what God has promised us. Getty would often say, “The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights.” He was only half right!

Born in 1892 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by 1916 Getty had already earned his first million dollars in the Oklahoma oil fields. But, he had only begun!