Showing posts with label Blake Shelton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blake Shelton. Show all posts

Monday, August 7, 2023

Because All Is Not As It Appears

 


Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths,
 but only what is helpful for building up the one in need 
and bringing grace to those who listen.

Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, 
and things wherewith one may edify another.

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day;
 lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Sometimes when we get an 'inside story' on a situation
we are reminded, nothing is ever completely as it appears.
Hopefully then, we strive to be kinder because who knows
what hidden cross our fellow-pilgrim is bearing!


This song from my younger days still makes me laugh😂
because most of us at some point can relate to at least one of
the frustrations he highlights😅




Be gracious, because everything is not as it appears
We all carry a hidden world beneath mortal veneers
And often what we might surmise by the posture of sheaves
Is but a glimpse of much more than the naked eye perceives

The aches and breaks of love and life are not splayed in bold font
For all to see the bare bones of necessity and want
Of tug of wars we weather as heart-tethers strain and groan
Of prayers poured out in secret tears, witnessed by God alone

Surely the common ground of stumbles and mistakes and such
Should sweeten words and soften hearts and gentle thought and touch
And make us far more patient with each other than we are
Where low blows from life’s hard knocks leaves many a hidden scar

Love’s lessons-in-the-learning do not spill for all to see
Therefore, we should defend each other with kind empathy/ sympathy
Rather than hurling insults, or quick judgment’s sharpened spears
We should be gracious, because all is not as it appears

© Janet Martin

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