Showing posts with label awareness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label awareness. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2024

A Love Beyond Compare

One of my Sunday School students presented this artwork to me yesterday;
a picture she drew (with permission😇) while listening to the lesson!
I love my class of smart, beautiful, eager, full-of-potential school-girls!
Thank-you K.S.


My earnest prayer for all our Sunday School students,
is that the Holy Spirit would begin to waken and nurture,
as we gather weekly, (and as weeks turn into years,)
not just a belief in God but a love for God.
That they would get more than an education in Bible stories and facts,
but that the plan and gift of salvation would begin to unfold
a lifelong awe, reverence and wonder for God's love and grace!
Will you join me in praying too?!
They are little for such a very little time!
I also pray that we, their teachers, parents and grandparents 
live pure and humble testimonies
of genuine love for the Saviour of our souls
and the Lord of our lives!

***
Matthew 5:16 - Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works, 
and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

***
Let's live love over and above
What Duty delegates
Let's love God, wonderfully awed
By His goodness and grace

Let's live aware of eyes that care-
fully watch every move 
Where actions shout and leave no doubt
About who we most love

Let's live a life of joy, not strife
Let's pay most earnest heed
To what we sow, because we know
Soon fruit follows the seed 

Soon innocence will climb time's fence
And leave childhood behind
Let's live love over and above
With every child in mind 

Before the heart grows hard, let's start
To plant, with tender care
Awareness of God's wondrous love:
A love beyond compare 

Janet~


Ephesians 5:1-2
 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 
 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,
 a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Through the Means of Today


"That our sanctification did not depend upon changing
our works, but, in doing that for God's sake which we commonly do for our own.
That it was lamentable to see how many people mistook the means for the end,
addicting themselves to certain works which they performed
very imperfectly, by reason of their human or selfish regards...."

by Brother Lawrence



We ought to pay close heed
To dawn’s gift on display
Because of where its moments lead
Through the means of Today...



Some folk I have outlived
And some will outlive me
Through the means of Today, a gift
God grants mortality

The tally of the sum
Of Today-shadows cast
Are like flickers that will become
My life, when life is passed

The breath that holds the soul
At bay, someday will cease
The means of getting to the goal
Will expire its lease

We ought to pay close heed
To dawn’s gift on display
Because of where its moments lead
Through the means of Today

The means is not the end
The ‘seen’ will soon be through
Let’s live as if Today could rend
The veil between the two

…where there is no release
To what none can outlive;
The end begins what cannot cease
And God alone can give

Oh, pray we bear in mind
Far more than dust of clay
In grave-strewn worlds soon left behind
Through the means of Today

© Janet Martin

Ps.107:8-9
Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
 For He satisfies the longing soul,
And fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Sharing some morning robin and finch cheeriness!
(in between traffic noise!)







Friday, March 1, 2024

New Month's Resolutions

 Happy, happy March! (already?!!)


This winter is flying by and hardly feeling like 'real' winter
with its milder temperatures and lack of snow!
Although last evening wasn't mild!
I almost froze my fingers to get these sunset poses!!!



I had to miss the magnificent, pink finale because I needed to go back inside to thaw my hands!
Note to self: never assume to be fine without mittens no matter how mild a few days earlier was!




May we make today more cheerful by being thankful and kind
And by keeping thought life gentle with fellowman's needs in mind
May we not be blind to beauty's wonder-thund'ring treasure trove
But embrace life's common duties with a glad and grateful love

Pray the Lord's goodness will fill us with joy bursting at the core
Rather than highlights that thrill us then leave us thirsting for more
Pray love’s meek and quiet spirit shields us from frontlines of strife
From lust of the flesh and eye, and dust to dust’s vain pride of life

Behold! each moment-memento brims with opportunity
May we delight in the tempo tuning Today’s symphony
For, sufficient for each hour is God’s glorious grace unfurled
Ah! Nothing can overpower He who overcame the world

May we make today more lovely by the way that we reply
To the Giver; not rude-grumbly, but with humble ‘here am I’
As creation spills our ears full, as dawn sets yon heights ablaze
May we make today more cheerful by joining its hymn of praise

For soon high's noon's full bloom flounders; soon plush petal-mettle yields
To the tug that always counters today with tomorrow's fields
So, before today is gathered into Bygone's works of art
May its moments as they scatter leave a smile in someone's heart

© Janet Martin






For You, O LORD, have made me glad by Your deeds;

I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

5How great are Your works, O LORD,

how deep are Your thoughts!

6A senseless man does not know,

and a fool does not understand,

7that though the wicked sprout like grass,

and all evildoers flourish,

they will be forever destroyed.

8But You, O LORD, are exalted forever!





Monday, February 26, 2024

For Your Name's Sake (some sonnets)

You drape the dell with scarves of silver tulle...

You carve the curving course of brook-song hue...

...the earth is full Of the glorious handiwork of You





You drape the dell with scarves of silver tulle
You carve the curving course of brook-song hue
That shimmers out to sea; the earth is full
Of the glorious handiwork of You

You fill and whet the seed that leaps to life
Fruit and flower reply; ah, who are we
That we should doubt Your ways while earth runs rife
With Your mercy, glory and majesty

You stir within the human heart a sense
Of holiness and power undeterred
A Culmination, awesome and immense
That eye has not yet seen nor ear yet heard

Oh Lord, let no path I pursue or take
Be for a lesser cause than Your name’s sake

***

Ps.23:3
...he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

***

You wake and rouse the earth from winter’s clutch
With ways we love and have come to expect
With daffodils and robin trills and such
With plumes and blooms sun-kisses resurrect

You tune four-season’s steadfast carousels
Sun, moon and stars their ordained circuits stay
And never stray; not one planet rebels
Your perfect law and order they obey

Nothing and no one can usurp Your will
Ancient oracles have not slipped your ken
Heaven and earth will not pass away till
Each jot and tittle is fulfilled. Amen

Behold! where autumn’s auburn petals fell
Springtime’s unfailing hallelujahs swell

***

Ps.24:1
The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof;

***

The earth is Yours, and its fulness thereof
The greedy forget this and want for more
Than Your goodness, mercy, kindness and love
Offering wealth that pales this world’s brief store 

Your righteousness and truth are of great price
The wise covet its fortune earnestly
Striving to be a living sacrifice
Lest worship be a show of vanity

You rend the dark; cut mercy’s legions loose
You bend heavens and earth with evidence
Of You; thus, we are all without excuse
When it comes to devotion’s recompense

Dear Lord, whatever life may bring our way
Help us endeavor to trust and obey

***

Ps.103:8
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

***

Compassionate and slow to anger, You
Withhold judgment, but not forever, oh
Someday total accounting will come due
Pity the one who heard You and said 'no'  

You, who held nothing back but gave Yourself
Pity the one who prizes prideful pelf
Above the love that robs death/hell of its claim

Time's four-season circuit spins round and round
Some sense its sacred toll, some scoff and sneer
But someday Time's Veneer will run aground 
And all earth's tribes will mourn with holy fear

Then, hope and grace and faith will be no more
When who we chose to serve settles the score 

© Janet Martin

***
Matt.24:30
Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, 
and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, 
and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven 
with power and great glory.

***

Behold! where autumn’s auburn petals fell...

Springtime’s unfailing hallelujahs swell





Friday, February 16, 2024

In All That We Achieve...

 Inspired, in part by a paragraph from this book previously mentioned here



In all that we achieve today, however common its demand
If we approach its come-what-may, with willing heart and open hand
And humble consciousness of holy ground beneath each step we take
Aware of how footfalls compound to leave a pathway in its wake

Then we will not forget to ask, ‘Dear God to purify each quest’
And we will find within each task an impetus to do our best
And face each challenge that we meet with more than self- int’rest in mind
Because, a world of little feet, are following not far behind

Where it is up to us to show, without a shadow of a doubt
Through ups and downs of yes-and-no, Who, what we do is all about
So pray, in all that we achieve, as aftermath of pathways wend
In sacred steppingstones we leave/weave, they lead to Heaven in the end

© Janet Martin

Ps.119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet 
And a light to my path.

Today's part-inspiration!

below continued from above...

I love how the paragraph below is a metaphor for life!





 


Thursday, February 15, 2024

On Living In The Moment

Look! morning’s epic entrance thunders with moments we’ve never met...



Because God is without beginning or end,
there will be no end to goodness!

Sometimes I am guilty of forgetting this,
 falling prey to doleful dread, 
believing the good days are over for good 
rather than finding the good in each day,
and thanking God for it by honoring Him with it
 in every way I can!

(click reference link to read the whole glorious Psalm)

How great is Your goodness
which You have laid up for those who fear You,
which You have bestowed before the sons of men
on those who take refuge in You!




I do not want to stare too long at sanguine scenes in Bygone’s glade
Nor covet echoes of a song, much softer now than when first played
Lord, give me ears to hear What Is before its music disappears
Open my eyes so I don’t miss the font that soon fills yesteryears

Beneath the hand of Time harsh sorrows and raw edges smooth, it seems
Washed by a tide, primed with tomorrows, rolling through a world of dreams
Darling, ere you and I awaken on the other side of This
Let’s be sweetly and humbly taken by the melody that is

For, far too soon Bygone’s infinite isle will claim tunes turned to mist
So, let’s not waste one precious minute while today's lyrics untwist  
Look! morning’s epic entrance thunders with moments we’ve never met
Oh, let’s not grow too old to wonder at mercies not tasted yet

© Janet Martin

Oh, let’s not grow too old to wonder at mercies not tasted yet...


Dawn's eyelids were heavy with snow-shadows!

It's been a while since Old Man Winter
 lugged out his white-wash bucket and tipped it over the earth...
I almost have First Snowfall thrills!







Wednesday, February 7, 2024

This Life Is Full of Lovely Things (in a much-amiss world)

To sun-rise starved Southern Ontarion-ers this morning's stunner
was like a sweet elixir to the soul!


Beneath a rush of blushing wings
A fresh start is unfurled...







This life is filled with lovely things
The fresh start that each new day brings
As dawn unfolds translucent wings
Where God prolongs Time’s grace
Child’s laughter to set hearts aglow
Gardens asleep beneath the snow
Waiting for spring to steal the show
As bud-looms burst with lace

This life is filled with countless joys
Mischievous pups and little boys
The beauty each season deploys
To leave us humbly awed
With handiwork by God designed
Then etched, splashed, pearled, swirled and entwined
Like surprises we thrill to find
On sky and sea and sod

This life is filled with wondrous ways
God wills and grants to gladden days
And turn would-be lament to praise
And weight of want to love
Where learning’s tattered lesson-book
Is brightened by bird-song, a brook
And God-ness, everywhere we look
(If we look long enough)

…where life is full of you and me
And Today’s opportunity
A hand to hold, a friend to be
A tender word to cheer
Each other on, through ups and downs
To be part of the art that crowns
The heart and face with smiles, as frowns
That would-be, disappear

This life, filled with mercies renewed
As morning rends night’s tent, star-strewed
Kindles courage with gratitude
In a much-amiss world
Where life is full of lovely things
To counter cares it surely brings
Beneath dawn's rush of blushing wings
A fresh start is unfurled

© Janet Martin

It was impossible to capture the full scale of the magnitude of the sunrise with
a camera lens. Its colors ran north and south without bound!



I began today's poem yesterday morning before Duty prevailed...
I wonder what yesterday's poem would have been??😅

Yesterday afternoon I was treated to this 'bird-song'
from a treetop symphony!


Before I finished 'yesterday's' poem this morning,
the wonderful Psalm below from today's devotion
began Today with utter loveliness!!

Ps. 130
Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord;
2 Lord, hear my voice!
Let Your ears be attentive
To the voice of my supplications.

3 If You, Lord, should [a]mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord
More than those who watch for the morning—
Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord;
For with the Lord there is mercy,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
8 And He shall redeem Israel
From all his iniquities.

Yesterday's poem-kindling...






Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Of Payoffs In Waiting (or Something About a Gaping Grave)


Yesterday my dad's oldest brother (and Wayne's father) was laid to rest.
He is an uncle fondly remembered by his nieces and nephews
 for his good-natured, uncomplaining and optimistic outlook
 though his life had many hardships!
We cousins are in a stage where funerals have become our meeting place
and with these gatherings comes the solemn reminder
our childhood playmates are not children anymore,
all of us under the influence of Time's unflinching touch 
and we are reminded of this truth;
that death can come to the young
but it will come to the old
and the realization is dawning that our generation
 is on the heels of the one we are, 
one by one, laying to rest!
A ripe old age turns to mist
 in death's twinkling of an eye!
So then, as we turn again 
to shoulder our yokes of scarred delight
pray we do not lose sight 
of the only payoff that counts
when, for all 'momentary mountains/afflictions, 
the eternal payoff is unveiled!

Therefore we do not lose heart.
 Though our outer self is wasting away, 
yet our inner self is being renewed day by day.
 17For our light and momentary affliction is producing 
for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.
 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. 
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Just beyond what we can see ...

(No matter how bitter/sweet)
lies Payoff's Eternity...

Below, a bit of 'sweet'.
This dog can be sassy and silly one minute
and sound asleep at my feet the next!!😂




Though the payoff of push and shove
Through ups and downs of life and love
May appear, to the sphere of sight
Like a showcase of scarred delight
While grappling with the yoke of truth
By fresh parades of fading youth

And though the payoff may seem small
For prayers that rise and tears that fall
Where today holds no guarantees
That Circumstance will aim to please
The Hierarchy of Hope and Dream
We nurture with fondest esteem

…and though the payoff drags its feet
Where hold and letting go compete
Something about a gaping grave
When mourners meet, its scene to brave
Reminds us with sobriety
Of a payoff we cannot see

The payoff for man’s hope and hurt
Is not a fresh-turned mound of dirt
Is not a final farewell tear
Is not the boon of now and here
Oh no! Death is the turn of key
Where push and shove/life and love’s payoff will be

So then, before it is too late
Pray we would reevaluate
The quests and payments we applaud
And rest our confidence in God
Who will, for all eternity
Unveil what the payoff will be

© Janet Martin

We sang two of my favourite hymns yesterday









Thursday, January 25, 2024

Candlelight Contemplation...

 Matt.5:14-16

“You are the light of the world.
 A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 
15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, 
and it gives light to all who are in the house. 
 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works 
and glorify your Father in heaven.

Letting love's light shine is easier said than done, isn't it?!
For just perhaps, when we think we're not faring too badly
along comes a sudden human-nature storm/retaliation
to remind us how mean and feeble we can be without
The True Light to light our little 'candles'

John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, 
the Word was God.
2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through Him all things were made, 
and without Him nothing was made that has been made.
4In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. 
5The Light shines in the darkness, 
and the darkness has not overcomea it.

Candlelight is such a gentle picture of love;
the way its glow warms and cheers the dark!
To keep a candle burning properly proper care must be given,
(such as trimming wicks etc.)
An example for us to examine our candle 
before we carry into Today!



To keep alive the light of love it must be fueled by the Source
We, on our own are not enough to fit love for its tender task
So, when we sense love’s flicker dwindle in the face of mean discourse
God will be faithful to rekindle love’s kind candle if we ask

Because we are so prone to bicker when we do not quite agree
The ready tongue is sometimes quicker than love’s reigned-in bark or bite
So, when the rumpus of a ruckus tries love’s sweeter sympathy
If we but ask Him, God will help us to steady love’s candlelight

So then, to keep love’s candle burning and to be less self-inclined
Means a consistent, conscious turning to love’s Faithful Uttermost

© Janet Martin




Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Sense of Sacredness aka Today!


If a family dinner get-together with my parents
and all ten of us kids and our spouses, all present,
and a slideshow of over 700 photos playing throughout the day
of us, our children and grandchildren, great-grandchildren
does not evoke a sense of sacredness to seemingly commonplace moments 
as they run through our fingers, I don't know what will!
That happened on Sunday.

This week, as ordinary as it appears, nothing is!
This morning as a new Today tumbled over earth's eastern edge,
not in any kind of colorful fanfare, but more like a wet, gray dog...
(or mourning doves)😂

I was again, struck by how this monotonous momentous collection of mornings
 eventually composes the song of Lifetime!

So I put a card in the mail for an old neighbor turning 90 this week,

I revived the fire, 

I continued working at organizing, cleaning and tidying the basement 


after stacking wood ..

...before two of my grandchildren came for a few hours...
(while big Brother gave the dentist a bit of a challenge. ahem😐.)



I washed the dishes after a lunch they half-ate


...all the while with a heaven-hinged sense of sacredness
in what at first glance definitely looks quite ordinary! 


It wafts from welkin wombs to where we live-laugh-love-weep-pray
To settle soft, where dusk entombs its season-sequenced play

It sparkles from a single source no needle can exact
An all-encompassing discourse that leaves no one intact

It tunes the timbre of a toll that rolls o’er land and sea
While drawing the cart of the soul back to eternity

Steeping the sacred commonplace with so much to hold dear
As paths no footsteps can retrace fall from the now and here

Like weightless notes from welkin wombs its moments waft and splay
To settle soft where dusk entombs the tempo of Today

Compelling us to take a closer look at what runs rife
Through fingers of composers of a song that we call Life

© Janet Martin

Ps.90:12
So teach us to number our days, 
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

My family likes to sing whenever we have a chance!
To close out the singing part of Sunday we,
( as best as our memories could serve us)
sang the song below together and THAT was the
sentimental icing on the cake😭



 Here are part of the lyrics  by Bill and Gloria Gaither
I can't find a link with all the stanzas 
so not sure if a few were added later??

We have this moment to hold in our hands
And to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand
Yesterday's gone and tomorrow may never come
But we have this moment, today.

Hold tight to the sound of the music of living
Happy sounds from the laughter of children at play
Hold my hand as we walk through the sweet fragrant meadows
Making memories of what was today.

Tiny voice that I hear is my little girl calling
For daddy to hear just what she has to say
My little boy running there by the hillside
May never be quite like today.

Tender words gentle touch and a good cup of coffee
And someone who loves me and wants me to stay
Hold them dear while they’re near don’t wait for tomorrow
To look back and wish for today.

Yesterday's gone and tomorrow may never come
but we have this moment, today.

Oh! You were trying to see the recipe in the one photo above?!
This, (making it for supper but using ground beef!)