Sweet Summer To-do List

The first few lines from June-chapter...

in this book...

kindled a sweet summer to-do-list...

(already in beautiful motion)

Sample strawberries (or blueberries) and cherries and peas...

Sit in a sauna of sunshine and breeze...

Sample strawberries (or blueberries) and cherries and peas

Sit in a sauna of sunshine and breeze

Wade through cool shade to find the perfect nook

Steep in sweet solace of leaf-song and book

Gather fresh goodness from garden-buffets

Fill bowls and pitchers with flower-bouquets

Find reasons to celebrate simple joys

Rain on the roses, school-free girls and boys

Early sunrises and ling'ring sunsets

Crackling campfires with spark-pirouettes 

Mischievous puppies, and the thrumming beat

Of hummingbird's hover and dashing bare feet

Listen to song-sparrow lyrics, be awed

By timeless beauty of sky, sea and sod

Marvel at treasure tipped from mercy's jars

How counting blessings is like counting stars

Slow down and savour summer's wonder-lust  

Inhale dusk's elixir of dew and dust

Cherish the moments that sparkle and glim

Capture their essence in poem and hymn

Blue-misted skylines and daisy-fringed lanes 

Rooster reveilles and cicada refrains  

Foliage-draped arbour and and trellis-abloom 

With tapestries from a God-threaded loom

 

Stand nose to nose with rose and peony

Pause to be taught by ant and honey-bee     

Don't be embarrassed; have heart-to-heart talks

With zinnias, carrots, lavender, hollyhocks

Where toil midst spoil of seeds planted in spring

Humbles our stance amongst plants, flourishing 

Don't let the frenzy of haste steal the show

Where tides of Heaven-glimpses ebb and flow

Slow down enough to feel kindly content

Before the ballad of summer is spent 

Balance the beckoning of work and play

Drink from the fount God refills every day

With flower-bowers and cloud-dappled deeps 

With summer sighing where the willow weeps

While the child chatters for happiness' sake 

While echoes scatter in childhood's sweet wake 

While cups of gladness overflow with praise

While we thank God for glorious, summer days

My, but sweet summer's joy flows, free-for-all

My, but it kindles a fond/fine madrigal

Where what we do with Measure of Today

Melds into keepsakes to treasure for aye 

My then, how holy summer-moments spill

Lord,  help me slowly to savour each thrill 

Janet Martin

Faith's Battle Hymn

Whatever the struggle, fear, trouble, pain or loss

These sorrows pale in comparison to Calvary's cross

Whatever we suffer, oh pray, we see its worth unfurled;

A deeper dependence/reliance on God than this old, helpless world 

James 1:2-8

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 

3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces [a]patience. 

4 But let patience have its perfect work, 

that you may be [b]perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, 

who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, 

for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 

7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

 8 he is a double-minded man,

 unstable in all his ways.

My faith looks up to Thee

Our tears are not in vain

The wordless prayers we groan

Are steppingstones of grief and pain

That lead us to Thy throne

Our valleys dark with dread

The ways we cannot see

Are avenues where faith is led

To wholly trust in Thee

The storm that tosses trees

The battles, fierce and long

The mountain we must climb; through these

The sufferer grows strong

Through these, by Thy kind love

We find, to faith’s surprise

The riches of a treasure trove

Thy grace alone supplies

Then, though faith cannot see

And though it never can

It rests its head upon Thy knee

And trusts Thy perfect/purposed plan

And as faith waits on Thee

It does not fret and pine

But suffers its Gethsemane

With ‘not my will but thine’

Sin sires this world’s woe

Greater Lord, is Thy might

Equipping faith to face its foe

With strength gained in the fight

Then, though we suffer long

Lord, save us by Thy grace

And for Thy glory keep faith strong

Till sight unveils Thy face

Let no shadow of doubt

Fall between faith and Sight

If fear sends demons, cast them out

And flood faith's path with Light 

Janet Martin

Whether in the precious prime of youth,

or aging,

or aged, 

or full of life,

or on our deathbed

only faith in the Giver of Life

can save us,

can strengthen us

 for this life's battles

and hurdles.

Only by faithful faith

are we fitted for Heaven! 

No Translation Required...

1 Thessalonians 3:12

And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow 

with love for one another...

Learning to love as we should is a lifelong schooling;

Its lesson-book; Today.

Its student; Self 

Love's lesson book unfurls a fresh page!

Thank-you Lord!

From skylines flushed with mercy's proof God ushers in today

Rife with fresh opportunity to love and trust and pray...

Love’s speech is explained without words; no translation required

A universal dialect by voice of choice defined

It speaks in tongues of angels by mankind’s Creator sired

It is not greedy, selfish, rude, impatient or unkind

It seeks no podium of pride; does not envy or boast

Love thinks of God and others first; how hard true love would be

Without HE who IS love and loves us to the uttermost

And helps us overcome ourselves with HIS humility

With his shed blood we are redeemed; by His stripes we are healed

By his grace we are saved; not by any works we have done

Lest we forget who, on mankind’s condemned behalf appealed

And loved us so He gave Himself through the gift of His Son

He knew no sin but became sin to break sin’s curse for aye

To crush the head of he who desecrates all that is pure

And delights in siring doubt with ‘did God really say’

He hates the One who gave Himself love’s conquest to secure/procure

Love is its own translator; actions speak louder than words

The way we treat our fellowman reveals love’s evidence

The love of God, if we but ask, gloriously undergirds

Our love, fumbling at best, with His love’s beaming recompense

Janet Martin

Wonderful, Wonderful June

Ps.104:1&24 (read the whole glorious chapter HERE)

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord my God, You are very great:

You are clothed with honor and majesty,...

O Lord, how manifold are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions—

June makes us merry with strawberry mirth...

Today we begin the last week of June!!

A reminder to savour June's colour and fragrance-dense flavour-favour of moments...

Wisteria wands wave in pale purple plumes...

Peony pom-poms flaunt pink opulence

Spawning slow strolls through earth’s grand garden rooms...

June is a jubilant zephyr that sighs

In treetops lavished with leaf-violins...

June is a cherub with laughing blue eyes...

June is a bare foot belle; see how she grins

Clad in unspun threads of lupine and rose...

Honeysuckle-pendants...

 and white petal-snows...

June-beauty burgeons at every turn

Raindrops bejewel each bloom, blade and bell...

Nooks are embellished with ivy and fern...

Bridal veil trails on the ground; drapes the fence

Wisteria wands wave in pale purple plumes

Peony pom-poms flaunt pink opulence

Spawning slow strolls through earth’s grand garden rooms

Hummingbird darts like a bard torn between

Duty and beauty; prudence and June-green

June is a jubilant zephyr that sighs

In treetops lavished with leaf-violins

June is a cherub with laughing blue eyes

June is a bare foot belle; see how she grins

Clad in unspun threads of lupine and rose

Honeysuckle-pendants and white petal-snows 

Wild phlox meander through ditches and dell

June-beauty burgeons at every turn

Raindrops bejewel each bloom, blade and bell

Nooks are embellished with ivy and fern

Authoring worship from each awe-filled heart

Summer, sweet summer, how lovely thou art

June makes us merry with strawberry mirth

June is the flower-frilled crest of the year

June is a picture of Heaven on earth

June is a cup overflowing with cheer

And just as youth’s bloom is so swiftly spent

So too, soon June will fold up Her tent

So, pause for a moment and look around

Savor the flavor of early sunrise

Let summer’s advent delight and confound

Bursting with birdsong, and first butterflies

Treasure the pleasure of halcyon hues

Twilight prolonging apricot adieus

Wheat fields a-glimmer beneath breeze-baton

Shimmering silver, on the verge of gold

Garden-fresh salad-fare, second to none

Praise God from whom seed miracles unfold

Praise Him for summer’s flower-festooned boon

Praise Him for wonderful, wonderful June

Janet Martin

So, pause for a moment and look around

Savor the flavor of early sunrise...

Let summer’s advent delight and confound

Bursting with birdsong, and first butterflies...

(or moths!)

Three Cecropia moths have been delighting us!

Wheat fields a-glimmer beneath breeze-baton

Shimmering silver, on the verge of gold...

Garden-fresh salad-fare, second to none

Praise God from whom seed miracles unfold...

Praise Him for summer’s flower-festooned boon

Praise Him for wonderful, wonderful June

The Fruit of 'Ought' or With Harvest-hope in Mind

These flowers are still available from  Countryview Greenhouse

near the 'Alma' end of Well. Cty. RD 8,

in case your looking to tuck a bit of colour into a corner or border!

(bedding plants are 1/2 price!!)

***

Heb. 2:1

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed 

to the things which we have heard,

lest at any time we should let them slip.

Luke 18:1

And he spake a parable unto them to this end,

that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

Rom.8:26

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

We do not know what we ought to pray for,

but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

1 John 3:16

This is how we know what love is:

Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

1 John 4:11

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

James 4:17

If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do

and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Every farmer or gardener knows which seeds ought to be planted

 for a specific fruit to harvest...

Only if we sow as we ought

and tend as we ought

 can we hope as we ought.

Due to ample rain

gardens and fields in our part of Ontario

are beginning to burgeon with

fruit of harvest-hope!

and flowers!!

Sometimes we cannot reap because we do not sow to God

The yield of fruit for which we weep, we seek from fallow sod

The answered prayer for which we plead, cannot bear what we ask

Because we have not sown its seed or tended to its task 

Sometimes the good we ought to do we do not, but ignore

Obedience, and cater to a roaming lion's roar

Rather than giving earnest heed to the things we have heard

And confessing a thought or deed contrary to God's Word

When we approach the throne of grace, where faith finds hope and cheer

Until we see Him face to face; pray first for ears to hear

The still small Voice of He who does not err in His reply

Or bless unconfessed sin, because He so loves you and I 

Sometimes we know the Very Thing we ought to repent of;

The barrier to which we cling with stubborn, selfish love

Because we lack humility, or sorrow for our part

That drew Jesus to Calvary and broke His Father's heart  

Sometimes the 'fruit' for which I plead can never be, until

I recognize, then sow the seed of love's surrendered will

And toil, and till and tend faith's field with humble diligence

Until God's grants the promised yield of love's obedience 

Praise God from whom goodness and love flow without flaw or fail   

Praise Him that He is mindful of man's trouble and travail

Praise He who is faithful and true, compassionate and kind

He helps us sow as we ought to, with harvest-hope in mind

Janet Martin 

Today's poem was kindled/convicted largely by today's devotion...