Life's Little Ways...

Yesterday our pastor asked me if I have any poems in the works 

and I am always caught completely off-guard when someone refers to that topic 

and I think I stuttered something about

 'usually I have something in the works because its just the way I 'tick' or process life',.

(I wish I was witty and could have thought of something to say like,

 'do you have any sermons in the works?',

 but on second thought, that might come off as a bit smart-alecky...sigh. here I go,

 second-guessing and over-thinking. Two of my main weaknesses) 

I then added, referring to his message that I just got a lot more to process

.(I didn't add, 'hopefully into poetry', but it's what I partly hoped God would allow. 

Poems turn lessons I might otherwise forget into keepsakes.

One of his points in yesterday's message was

 'whose agenda are we/am I focused on, mine or God's?' 

 It ties in well with a book I just started reading by Andrew Peterson entitled, 

Adorning the Dark...

The writer challenges us to 'seek first the kingdom of God' not

only in everyday life but also especially when it comes 

to the creative part of our being such as writing.

Life lends us lots of little ways to prove who we love most

The Giver of our numbered days tests desire and boast

Where godliness/holiness and gratitude/attitude must war against the flesh

Lest passions, sly and unsubdued inveigle and enmesh

How wily is the voice of Want; it beckons and beguiles

How subtle the silver-tongued taunt that first thrills, then defiles

How careful, prayerful we should weigh ambition’s catalyst

The tempter sweetly stalks his prey with poison, sugar-kissed

Life lends us lots of little ways to learn what it would teach

Mercy heaps morning’s gleaming trays, no one beyond His reach

He is a gracious God of love to we, accountable

For all the little ways we prove who we love most of all

© Janet Martin

Seek ye first

the kingdom of God

and His righteousness

and all these things

shall be added

unto you.

Matt.6:33

Every day God shows us in so many little ways 

how much he loves us

Oh, may the same be true about us, for Him!