Showing posts with label second chances. Show all posts
Showing posts with label second chances. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

On Second Thought (taught by disaster after First Thought)

I first heard this song last week although it is a few years old...I like it!


It fits in well with a message I listened to this morning...

(listening to this might be the most life-changing 25 min. you ever spend!)
  
Sometimes we just have to brush the dirt of hurt off our hearts a little and
focus on how much God loves us and He helps us forgive others
and ourselves for mistakes made!
(one of the most comforting lines for me in the above message;
"'How do we learn? We learn by making mistakes!" )



When second thought comes after the disasters that ensue
Because we disregard the One who authored me and you
…who wove the treasure-trove cupped in a bitty bud, and kenned
Each star in galaxies so vast no mind can comprehend

…who ushered breath to life and suffered Death to conquer hell
Who took upon himself the debt we owed but could not quell
Who knew salvation’s plan before He drew man’s dust-to-dust
And hewed No Easy Exodus but bore Love’s Awful Must

Who never shuts his eyes, though, oh, we grieve Him, grieve Him so
When we believe the lies of one who wanders to and fro
And seek souls to devour; Death and Hell cloaked in fine fare
The prince of darkness dressed like an angel of light; beware

…and then when second thought (after first thought suffers defeat)
Repents in humble sorrow before Heaven’s mercy-seat
Then God who loves, forgives and remembers our guilt no more
Will grant us grace to carry on, much wiser than before

© Janet Martin


For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Heb.4:12



Wednesday, November 30, 2016

A Rare Undertaking

Today's Final Prompt: Write a last chance poem.

(This poem may be read as one or as six poem-lets)



Within the grin and growl of Time…of tumbles and slow-dances
We skin its scope of grief and hope and first and final chances

The air is rife with life’s delights and knife-like circumstances
The morning like a rose unfolds in blue and gold romances

Though we are old-er than we were and not so bold and daring
The firsts and lasts of love and life still overflow our bearing

Life’s firsts are often named, earmarked and widely celebrated
Its lasts intangible; heart-tugs, subtle and understated

What if today was the last day that we would share our laughter
What, through farewell’s tears would we say to cheer us ever after?

Each day is a first-final dance; what a rare undertaking
As feet move to the music of memories-in-the-making

© Janet Martin

(Thoughts and prayers with those in Tennessee and surrounding areas 
as they deal with wild-fire and other tornado aftermath.
One survivor worded it perfectly
'We can rebuild but we cannot replace'. )

Thursday, August 4, 2016

For What Still Waits To Be...



 Sometimes I think I can make muffins in my sleep, so common is this weekly-or-more-ritual...

 ...but suddenly it struck me how much has changed through my muffin-making years!
The home-from-school-hungry-boy is a young man leaving for work at 7:00 every morning...

...no more mom-can-you-take-me-pick-me-up?

Moms, let's cherish our modest 'mundanes' because nothing stays the same for long...

Nothing remains the same
 For all that seems to stay
Such as the wick that wears dawn’s flame
And twilight snuffs away

...such as rainbows that spill
From bud-anointed loom
To bloom a little bloom until
Its petals fill earth’s tomb

Such as each season-sweep
That flickers but a glance
With splendors that no one can keep
Save perhaps, second chance

Such as life’s give and take
The ache of hold-let-go
Such as the memories we make
From wakes that ebb and flow

The tasks that we perform
Without much thought are such
That they are guaranteed to fall
Beneath Time’s tireless touch

...for poetry of words
Cannot persuade the clock
To linger where the dust is stirred
By foot-loose Goldilocks

No, nothing stays the same
Save this, a common plea
That God will grant His strength and grace
For what still waits to be

© Janet Martin

Monday, August 19, 2013

Of Waves and Second Chances





No spent waves tune morning’s gladness
From the Hand of all things new
Comes a morning drenched with mercy
Sweet with kiss of heaven’s dew

Hope expands beneath the tresses
Where, since Eden’s paradise
Light, with ever-faithful graces
Rends the dark with morning skies

Here we laugh and weep and wonder
Dare to dream the dreaming dream
While the bloom falls from the poppy
Scarlet whispers on life’s stream

Still, we press toward a portal
Past the lintel of the sky
Where mortal becomes immortal
In the twinkling of an eye

We are not adrift on oceans
Of spent waves and happenstance
Morning rends the dark with dawning
And the gift of second chance

© Janet Martin

The other day I read a quote that has stayed stuck in my mind…It is not too late to become who you dreamed you would be.


Press on, my friends. God’s grace is new every morning.

Also, please let us pray for those suffering in Egypt. Prayer changes things!




  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,  not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Eph. 2: 4-10