Live, Laugh, Love

 We are celebrating the first sunrise in weeks;

a wonderful way to begin this second-last day of January...

and who knows what else?!

The longer that we live

The more the memories we make

Each day destined to leave

White ghost-like glimmers in its wake

The longer that we laugh

The more we come to understand

The dearness of its gift

The nearness of sorrow’s swift hand

The longer that we love

The more we come to realize

The bitter-sweetness of

Time’s satin glove filled with good-byes

© Janet Martin

We spent yesterday with Brantley's other grand-parents visiting from Nova Scotia, 

realizing how, as we shared and reminisced about our own children as babies,

 we all share in common, (the older we get)

 a bittersweet sorrow at the swiftness of it all

Like a Shawl Full of Holes

The snow stretches cold, like a shawl full of holes

Thrown over the shoulders of earth

The Weaver of days fills the scope of hope’s gaze

With Season and Reason’s rebirth

The planter of prayers climbs the slope of faith’s stares

Up to heaven’s Giver of grace

Where, to have and hold like a shiver of gold

Tumbles through our inept embrace

The woodland is draped with starred silk from a cape

That no mortal merchant can hawk

This beauty at large is offered without charge

Mercy’s master-peaceful backdrop

Desire is quaffed in white silence, snow-soft

The whim that besets foolish deed

Is wonder-replete as we kneel at the feet

Of a God who knows just what we need

These hours that spill like a sheath that we fill

With belief and the offspring thereof

Is of such design the no one can decline

Its heaven-to-human-race-love

The grace that it grants is far more than mere chance

We dance on trust-dust called today

Where snow wraps its cold, like a shawl full of holes

This holy, slip-slipping away

© Janet Martin

I was reminded this morning by something I read that we should do whatever it is we're doing with all our heart...

 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

Col.3:23

It ties in well with tomorrow's Sunday School lesson..
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

Prov. 6:6-8 

..so. on that note, here's to tackling to-do lists 'heartily, as to the Lord'!

Love-reminders or For Prize-Fighters

Lest in life’s greed and haste we waste the best of what we have

Lest, with feet shod with chase we serve the gods of self and sin

Lest grace is overlooked because of idols that enslave

God sends us love- reminders to help us remember Him

Lest we forget to purpose in our hearts to follow He

Who gave His Son in our stead, full sacrifice for sin

Lest we become distracted by world-offers that we see

God sends us love-reminders to turn our cries to Him

Lest in life’s heave-ho, hello and farewell we compromise

And hope we once revered becomes a thing that we ignore

God sends us love-reminders, trouble-shaped in our eyes

But He knows it is this that stirs our want to need Him more

© Janet Martin

My friend Diane continues to battle the afflictions of cancer. When she gets low she cries out for more prayer knowing that only through Him can she endure!

Will you help bathe her in prayer as she battles pain and waits for surgeons to reply? 

Hard, hard times but still she will put up FB posts bringing praise, honor and glory to Jesus Christ!

"God bless you, Diane, as you shine Jesus to all of us!"

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Phil.3:14

 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--
may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

1 Peter 1:7

Painting

 This morn's painting is entitled Silver...

(no my dear fellow-friends, not gray;-)

 And yes, the sun still exists even if it's missed us for two weeks!

Sweep the vale with silver mist

Brush hushed dale with amethyst

Paint heaven soft-indigo

Wash walkways with stars of snow

Help us, as we look, to find

Masterpieces of the mind

Drench the dawn with yawning sky

Smooth to gray frayed lullaby

Sketch new day and etch blue night

With highlights of fetching white

Teach us, as we gaze to see

More than just a place to be

Skim earth’s brim of dust with pink

Stir the heart of us to drink

Splash landscapes with hills and brooks

Art made for long second looks

Draw each face like shadows where

Human race has paused to stare

Hang upon yon walls of space

Scrawl of sapling Jack Frost laced

Move us to be wooed and awed

From a palette held by God

Then, as we look, help us hear

Pictures of Him everywhere

© Janet Martin

If our moment is looking *mostly ordinary maybe we should look again just in case we’ve missed something!

 

...and if you're still not convinced maybe looking longer indoors is more your style!

Like this...sneak-peek here 

Recipe here..Best Banana Bread

 Delicious!

 (Mine suffered a few baking challenges, like being doughy in the middle but black on the bottom. Not sure if its my oven temp. or the pan, but it disappears in spite of its 'roastiness'.)

'*mostly ordinary' being such a best-blessed life! 

Psalm 73: 21-28

 When my heart was grieved

    and my spirit embittered, 

 I was senseless and ignorant;

    I was a brute beast before you.

  Yet I am always with you;
    you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will take me into glory. 

 Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 

 My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart
    and my portion forever.

  Those who are far from you will perish;
    you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. 

 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
    I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
    I will tell of all your deeds.

Of Sneak-peeks and Such

 A Sneak-peek at our lunch-treat;-)

No one gets a sneak-peak

Into morrow’s day

No one knows for sure what waits

One hour away

No one knows for certain

What, before day’s end

Waits to pin its curtain

To past’s dividend

But one thing we do know

Without slight or fail

God’s love opes dawn’s window

Mercy tips its grail

© Janet Martin

 Since my youth, God, you have taught me,
    and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.

Even when I am old and gray,
    do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
    your mighty acts to all who are to come.

Ps.71:17-18