With Holy Awe

...for the mortal it feels impossible to understand the close distance of eternity. Kara Tippetts~

Then teach us, Lord
To love and live
Each day You give
By mercy's law
And help us to
Humbly embrace
Each day of grace
With holy awe

Janet~

Let's Run Away and Remember...Love

Let's run away and remember...Kara Tippetts

Let's run away and remember

Not how we may have failed

But how we re-learned laughter

Where love loved and prevailed

After perhaps, we stumbled

Hard-humbled by regret

When love lavished with kisses

To heal and then forget

Let's run away and remember

How, before December was

June blushed lush green with nuances

Love's sweet, fleet camoflouge

Where we, love-struck believers

Began to learn its truth

In ways stunning and foreign

To dreamers wearing youth

Let's run away and remember

Counting backwards, one by one

The April-to-September

Rendezvous through rain and sun

And let's remember just enough

Of what love should not be

To help us to remember

To love with humility

Let's run away and remember

Love; old, middle-aged, brand-new

Because, though time brings change

Love never fails; sometimes we do

Then, because love is gentle

And patient, good and kind

We forget just enough to keep

Love tender-hearted, blind

Janet~

 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, 

forgiving one another, 

even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

 Eph.4:32

The Affliction That May Come...

So do not begrudge the affliction that may come. Press deeply into Jesus. Allow those broken edges to show you how desperate you are for Jesus. Kara Tippetts

...and she shares these verses as a reminder of His faithfulness;

I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant. Let your mercy come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.

— Psalm 119:76,77

 

 

The affliction that may come

Can cause our hearts to fear

But just as in our Better Days

God is near

 

The affliction that may come

Could steal our inner peace

But God's kind mercy even then

Does not cease

 

The affliction that may come

Is never greater than

The faithful love and grace of God

Thus, We can

 

Janet Martin

 

 

For the Love of Home

Kara at Mundane Faithfulness asks,  "What is home to you? Where is your exhale? What dreams sometimes steal your contentment of what you have?"

She makes me want to live Love with arms wide-open! ...to crave the Glorious Mundane

It is much more than she deserves

The comfort of its love-worn curves

Where heaven’s subtle shadow lies

Within the frame of laughing eyes

And Time together; set apart

From life out there, its heart to heart

A joy that money cannot buy

But grants to folk like you and I

Who, by the kindness of God’s love

Received a crumb from Favor’s trove

It is more than pen can express

Home’s pure simple-sweet happiness

Of love and learn, of spills and tears

…how fond and fleet the will of years

Melds moments into memories

And tickles time away with ease

Where suddenly we are awestruck

By the beauty of mercy’s muck

…a harbor on hope’s heaving sea

That only home-sweet-home can be

It is more than she can quite grasp

Time’s tangled cords slip through her clasp

Where Fortune wears a strange disguise

Yet weaves a holy paradise

And who knew that love’s constant mess

Could foot the crux of happiness?

Or how Mundane will ever be

The apex of excellency

In four-wall halls of chipped-paint bliss

Where home is surely heaven’s kiss

© Janet Martin

...Victoria and I watched one of our favorite black and white movies last night;
Little Women starring Katherine Hepburn

Counting Happiness-es

The Lord blesses.
Our happiness-es
Depend on how we see
Not 'but' or 'if'
Our 'have' is a gift
Of what we choose to see

The Lord blesses.
Our happiness-es
not dumb luck or chance
but how we use
the joy we choose
In spite of circumstance

The Lord blesses.
Our happiness-es
Increase lavishly
As, by His grace
We glimpse His face
Through what we choose to see 


'But Mom! she said, I have a system to my mess!'

Click on images to enlarge...

...'how about getting rid of the shoe-boxes, I suggest to a daughter who saves every shoe-box, candy-wrapper, shopping-bag(the paper-kind with handles)for 'keep-sakes'. Oh, no! she cries in alarm! those boxes inspire me!!' ...so I look up, over the mess that has me sneezing and gasping for air...(we are getting ready to paint her room and the old blue-heart desk...)

I have to confess that often I am SO vexed with the mess down below that I did not notice her magazine snippets stuck to the wall..the bible verse sticky-notes on her mirror...though I did notice her dusty iced tea cans and pop shoppe bottles that are precious because 'that was the time when...'

...suddenly I forgive her and wish her all the inspiration in the world:) Happiness truly lies in what we choose to see...

Janet~

If you still don't believe it, ask Kara!