Invitation To Enjoy August!

August is like thirty-one days of waking up on Christmas morning!

August’s warm invitation rolls across the tolling lea

Summer’s glad celebration hails from brimming land and sea

Then revel in its bliss before it disappears from view

And satisfy addictions for green, gold, purple and blue

August anoints creation with intoxicating hues

It fulfills expectation with wild-bloom fringed avenues

Then drink its elixir before it drip-drips out of reach

Satisfy sweet addictions for watermelon and peach

August delights the senses with its dusty, dewy gait

It lavishes the landscape with excuses to be late

Then take the detour before summer slip-slips from the lane

And satisfy addictions for its sun-sweet drops of rain

August is like a portrait steeped in sweeps of blue and gold

The Artist fills earth’s canvas with pure beauty to behold

Then make the most of what is bound to fade into thin air

And satisfy addictions for flavours than none can snare

August begins to hint at words we cannot bear to taste

Its hazy dog-day afternoons are too glorious to waste

So chase those silver thistle-parachutes as they sail by

And satisfy addictions for cicada’s plaintive cry

August ignites an ache that breaks the heart with happiness

It makes us weep for joy where harvest bends the orchard tress

Then embrace here and now before the cricket’s tweet-tweet dies

And satisfy addictions for flowers and butterflies

© Janet Martin

Then Wait...

 I'm reading a beautiful book entitled Adventures in Prayer by Catherine Marshall

What an insightful, encouraging read!

 ...especially to all who are learning to lean a little more!

Below is a paragraph from the chapter The Waiting Prayer

above devotion from the book Springs in the Valley, compiled by Mrs. Chas. E. Cowman

Then wait; the war Want wages in cages of mortal tent

Could engage us in battles of doubt and discouragement

When heart-felt pleas upon our knees seem adrift or ignored

And we begin to worry while we ‘wait upon the Lord’

Still wait; for on the wheel of faith the Potter shapes the clay

When will is tempered ‘neath a Hand that tests the words we pray

…though fretful tears oft flow for oh, we do not understand

And we are so forgetful when it comes to Want’s demand

...and consequence can deal an immense lesson in remorse

God higher ways oft sent through trusting’s grueling intercourse

For not in the attaining does faith its foundation prove

But as we learn to wait we earn the Wisdom from above

So, lest we interfere with He who works for our best

Wait on the Lord while pouring out each meek, earnest request

For our own perception peers through present's temp'ral grind

Where honour and deception can be subtly intertwined

So then we ought to humbly strive to care a great deal more

For others as we wait upon The Thing Worth Waiting For

How little we can see of Mercy’s mighty Masterplan

How much He cares for you and me like only God’s love can

How He longs to surprise us as we surrender and wait

While clinging to His promises; not compromise’s fate

Oh, how He longs to change us as we yield and yield and yield  

And wait upon the Lord until His Purpose is revealed

…where oft what is withheld is what compels us to let go

While oft our tears soft-meld with answers that appear as ‘no’

Where nothing is quite as it seems in spite of how it seems

And everything we have we owe to He who knows our dreams

But fathers with a vision so beyond our little scope

And authors through Waiting’s Submission purer faith and hope

For in faith’s Waiting Room God grooms us for what waits to be

He strips away the guise of well-worded propriety

And ties our tongues with wordless groans and pride fully undressed

While we examine our hearts for sin not yet confessed

And bow before the throne of God where He our sob subdues

With whispers, while we wait, and find the peace Release renews

© Janet Martin

 

Learning About Love...

Grand-daughter is 4 mos. old!

(There are no words for this kind of love)💗

When it comes to love there is SO much to live for

 and SO MUCH more then to care/long/pray for !

Love makes life's most common moments sacred!

But, WOW, love is hard work by God's grace isn't it?!

Still, it is life's one certain success because

Love never fails...

 1 Cor.13:8

Love kicks us down and picks us up and turns the other cheek

It makes us careful, prayerful, brave; It makes us strong and weak

Love teaches us that what we learn will keep us on our knees

How flash of common moments metes forever-memories

Love’s ash of days-gone-by can sting the eye and wring the heart

Where life, in spite of all its flaws turns into priceless art

That we press into places where want’s longing would seep through

Save for love’s friendly faces framing lists of lots-to-do

Love breaks the mold that makes us older quicker than we dreamed

It wreaks havoc on plans and selfish Grand Escapes we schemed

It humbles us with stumbles then grants Reason to proceed

Where love in all its seasons binds us by its kindred need

Love does not criticize but is compassionate and kind

The more of it we give away the more of it we find

where nothing is enough without love; then let’s try

To do our part to give away what money cannot buy

Love stretches us and squishes us like silly-putty, oh

It tests the best of Good Intent with simple ‘yes’ and ‘no’

It is a savage beast but oh, it is a gentle dove

It makes the most of Very Least, so Lord, teach us to love

For You are rich in mercy and forgive us if we slip

You never let us go but keep us firmly in Love's grip

You are the role model for we, who can make such a mess

Of blessings that you grant and intend for our happiness

Love, like a bar of slippery soap is hard to squeeze and hold

It won’t stay put in pockets but turns coppers into gold

And paupers into kings; love makes faith greater than our fears

Whilst stirring sweetest laughter and begetting saddest tears

© Janet Martin

Each Day...

 To rejoice on a glorious August morning is not a hard command to fulfill!

Pray we trust the Giver of each day in all it unfolds!

Each day is like fresh Freedom

A heaven-to-earth nod

That fuels the momentum

That draws us back to God

Each day is like permission

To try and try again

To renew hope’s ambition

For labour ‘not in vain'

Each day, a celebration

Where Mercy’s full proof brings

A royal invitation

To serve the King of kings

Each day is like a treasure

That gleams with Great Unknown

Where He who grants its measure  

Will not leave us alone

Each day is like a canvas

That captures vim and verve

And fills unmarred expanses

With proof of Whom we serve

Then make each day love’s mission

And wait with watchful eyes

For the breath-breadth transition

From earth to paradise

© Janet Martin

The last stanza to this poem just kinda wrote itself first thing this morning as I prayed
before my feet touched down on the tarmac of Today...

The progress of this poem however took a few hours...
as Little Girl arrived
and we did our morning lo-o-o-o-o-ng swing-ride
a trampoline jump,
flower-garden-weeding
breakfast and so-forth
 while I tried composing stanzas in-between😉
Now its
Back to the Very Important Business of Swing Ride!

Bittersweet of August Day...

August Day
tips its decanter

Beauty burgeons,
bittersweet

For we sense
in bloom’s bright banter

And in cricket’s
tweet-tweet-tweet

And in hazy, lazy
high noon

And in twilight’s
cooling sigh

That the season,
once a cocoon

Has become
a butterfly

© Janet Martin