An Anniversary Celebration of Sonnets

 37 years...

Thank-you, Lord

 

This photo was taken at my niece's wedding on May 24th,

where we gathered to witness the marriage and celebrate

Newlyweds, 

who were sparkling with visions of marital bliss 

dancing in their heads!

All of us who have been married for

well, really, almost any amount of time know

'till death doth part' takes more than we can successfully

and beautifully accomplish on our own!

But with God nothing is impossible!

Especially faithful love,

which He is the Author of! 

Below is Jim's 'home away from home'

contributing often to the successes and challenges 

of marriage and love's second miles

(pun intended 😅💓 )

He left yesterday morning with plans of picking up a load out west!

On Sunday night after returning home from a family reunion

I cooked and baked a week's worth of supplies

Last night the load got cancelled 😒

He will be returning home tonight if all goes as planned.

And such is life

***

So much of life is out of our hands

But never love; love helps us bear all things

Not with determined and selfish demands

But with the strength that self-surrender brings 

Love, a story that begins in the heart

 Soon finds its feet as blindness starts to see

To pull together lest we drift apart

Takes sacrificing 'I' for 'us' and 'we'

Love never runs out of lessons to teach

No one can outlive its so-much-to-learn 

Then, before one of us is out of reach

Let's make the most of each day's no-return 

Before the solemn sundering of ties

Forever closes doors and lips and eyes 

© Janet Martin

***

1 Cor.13:4-8  (NKJV)

Love suffers long and is kind; 

love does not envy; 

love does not parade itself,

 is not [a]puffed up;

 5 does not behave rudely, 

does not seek its own,

 is not provoked, 

[b]thinks no evil; 

6 does not rejoice in iniquity, 

but rejoices in the truth; 

7 bears all things, 

believes all things, 

hopes all things, 

endures all things.

8 Love never fails...

Darling, in a world mad with lust and spite

Let's make a vow to guard against the trend 

Committing rather to fight love's good fight  

By God's grace to be faithful to the end 

Darling, the world will never sympathize

With altars filled with ash of sacrifice 

Love suffers long and is kind; what a prize

True love esteems the other; what a price 

Darling, to-have-and-hold is no small fete 

To love-and-cherish until death doth part

Is not a vacation on Easy Street

Nor an endeavor for the faint of heart

Darling, let's give love every finest chance

And live life humbly, by the grace God grants

© Janet Martin

Eccles.4:12

... and a three strand cord is not quickly broken.

Armed with a world of wonderful advice

Is not enough to master love's success

Until we learn love's law of sacrifice

Marriage will suffer much unhappiness 

Fond hopes and dreams are lovely to behold 

But life does not cater to Well-laid Plan 

Its highway does not flawlessly unfold

According to the want and wish of man 

The ups and downs of love and life are sure

Marriage takes two people, humanly-flawed

And binds them with ties able to endure

If woven with the third strand who is God

Darling, let's pray through both life's grand and grim 

That our love reflects the love of Him

© Janet Martin

And last but not least, 

after many somber reminders this past year+

through many sudden losses of  Husband or Wife of

neighbours, friends and family,

 a sonnet of solemn awareness/thankfulness...

***

No one can see or guarantee Tonight 

Death often enters/visits where/when we least expect

Sobering us with meek, wiser insight;

Love, both a charge and gift none should neglect 

Each day pulses with opportunity

To love each other better, and God first 

To make the most of little words like 'we'

And weather faithfully life's best and worst 

So when death comes (and it most surely will)

Our deepest sorrow will not be regret

But, as the bitter tears of parting spill

We praise God for the joy of love's vows kept 

 

Darling, while time is still on our side

Let's try our best to live love Self-denied 

© Janet Martin

O Perfect Love - Best Wedding Hymn with Lyrics 

Lyrics-Dorothy F. Gurney

1 O perfect Love, all human thought transcending,

lowly we kneel in prayer before thy throne,

that theirs may be the love which knows no ending,

whom thou in sacred vow dost join in one.

2 O perfect Life, be thou their full assurance

of tender charity and steadfast faith,

of patient hope and quiet, brave endurance,

with childlike trust that fears no pain or death.

3 Grant them the joy which brightens earthly sorrow;

grant them the peace which calms all earthly strife;

grant them the vision of the glorious morrow

that will reveal eternal love and life.

Psalter Hymnal, 1987

Love, Far More Than It Appears...

Jim and I are celebrating 36 years of wedded bliss today!

Some days more blissful than others, for such is love and life...

It may appear quite commonplace; The love between husband and wife

As, for better or worse, we face/brace and share the highs and lows of life

Where workaday and give-and-take and find-a-way to get along

Is not always a piece of cake to keep love patient, kind and strong

Love, as it weathers smiles and tears of ‘what God joins till death doth part’

Is always more than it appears, and never for the faint of heart

For no matter how old or young or very much in love we are

Sometimes we do not bite our tongue, sometimes diff’ring opinions spar

Love is life’s very complex Best; so bitter-sweet, so wonder-full,

So rife with changes bound to test perspective with its push and pull

But, pray we tenderly revere Now-and-Here’s opportunity

For no one knows how far or near till farewell’s somber certainty

How graciously God’s goodness grants fresh chances as we live and learn

For every single circumstance love guarantees a rich return

And, though it may look commonplace, love is far more than it appears

It is a gift that, by God’s grace, grows dearer with the passing years

Heart throb, heartbreak; the stakes of love are very sacred and severe 

The pinnacle of perfect joy and tender trove of grief-borne tear 

Where we can never tell what waits to try the waning ties that bind

Around God's fingers as the days and years softly, surely unwind 

How often, unexpectedly, Death reaches in to claim its prey

How often then, more reverently we vow to treasure every day

And cherish the familiar face of still-present husband or wife

And prize what appears commonplace, but is the very best of life

A wedding anniversary is never commonplace, my dear 

It is the evidence that 'we' have weathered one more God-lent year

It is a celebration of the highs and lows love has withstood

Not by ourselves, but by the love of God who is faithful and good 

© Janet Martin

Yes, Love often appears quite commonplace... whether it's

Hubby's hearty swig from Wife's morning coffee

(because its the perfect temperature!)

or,

Hubby's 'toss his hat whither-so-ever it lands' except the hooks inside the door,

quite indifferent to Wife's 'evil eye' 😛😂😅

...and SO many things that Wife does and drives Husband batty,

Long stories, too many bunny trails, 😅

(but I've wondered why he cares when it clearly seems he often

  isn't listening in the first place) 😂

Always poetry waiting to be written...

Forgetting to pay bills on time...OOPS!! 

Ain't love grand?!!

Mark 10:7-9

7‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother 

and be united to his wife,c

8and the two will become one flesh.’d 

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 

9Therefore what God has joined together, 

let man not separate.”

Marriage (Is a Lifelong Unfolding)

It's really hard to believe that it's ten years!

Happy 10th Anniversary! 

May God bless you with many more happy, faithful years of marriage!

10 years later...

(photo credit to a photographer in Nova Scotia)

Everyone who is married knows 

that although wedding celebrations and congratulations are very special, 

Anniversary congratulations are ever-the-more so,

 having experienced, by the grace of God what it takes to fulfill marriage vows,

(especially as parenting-challenges are added🙏💝😍)

Marriage is a lifelong learning 

about highs and lows of love

A lifetime of no returning 

to a world of ‘I’ and ‘me’

From the moment vows are spoken 

and recorded up above

Only by death’s parting broken, 

marriage is a life of ‘we’

Marriage, is God’s holy knitting 

together of two to one

A lifetime of recommitting 

to be each other’s best friend

For this is no small endeavor, 

on a Wedding Day begun

Because marriage is forever; 

love, a student to the end

Marriage is full of surprises; 

'no dreamer’s dream long intact

Love’s politest of disguises 

soon faces reality

Testing Best of expectation

 with age-old matters of fact

Teaching stubborn indignation 

lessons in humility

Marriage is a bit like weather, 

some days full of smiles, sun-warm

Laughter finesses the tether 

that feels far too fine to break

But some days are dark with thunder, 

some days love must brave a storm

Some days love may dare to wonder 

if marriage was a mistake

But what God has joined together,

 by His grace He will sustain

Day by day, just like the weather, 

marriage weathers highs and lows

As love learns to say ‘I’m sorry’, 

faithful through both sun and rain

God is unfolding the glory 

of a very priceless Rose

© Janet Martin

Mark 10:9

Therefore what God has joined together,

 let no one separate.”

The Rose- Conway Twitty

Of Unbroken Marriage Vows

Today is my parent's 60th Wedding Anniversary...

On Saturday Mom and Dad, along with all children and spouses

enjoyed a day of celebration of God's goodness,

in the blessing of the milestone of 60 years of marriage!

And no, the waters have not always been calm and sun-sparkled!

They have weathered many a self-sacrificing storm.

Happy 60th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

So thankful for you!

No beauty in the world compares to love that stands the test of time

A yoke weathered by creature cares through vows uttered in youth’s green prime

Where none, as God joins heart to heart, with love’s solemn ‘from this day forth’

Can know how far ‘till death doth part’ will undo Heaven’s best on earth

For, when love is patient and kind, and when it does not seek its own

There is nothing that we can find worth more (save faith’s sound Cornerstone)

To ground love’s house built on the Rock, an anchor for the storms we face

To help us in our walk and talk to be examples of God’s grace

For it is by His grace love bears and believes and endures all things

A Threefold Cord; nothing compares to the strength this awareness brings

Where, by the mystery of God two become one, till death doth part

Let not man put asunder what marriage vows have joined, heart to heart

For nothing in the world compares to love that withstands living’s test

A recompense of humble prayers, of lessons learned through forgiveness

To bring honor and glory to He who is a most faithful Friend

And helps Husband and Wife to be loving and faithful to the end

Dear Mom and Dad…

God, bless and keep, protect and guide you on this special day, and then

From this day forth may He provide love and faith’s sacred need, amen

Where, though much in this world is broken, may what time weathers and bows

By God’s grace be love’s faithful token of Unbroken Marriage Vows

© Janet Martin

Num.6:24-26

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
 The Lord [a]lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.” ’

It's Not Fancy, Love's Commitment

Marriage; that 'till death do us part' commitment

...that 'what God has joined together let no one put asunder' undertaking

...that 'for better or worse' that's bound to try even the starriest eyes 

Marriage; that union no love is ever fully prepared for

Today Jim and I, by the grace of God

 celebrate 35 years of marriage

it's not fancy, love's commitment

keeping kindness on its toes

learning how to be more patient

rather than wield verbal blows

learning to weather together

what could well draw us apart

when differences strain the tether

that has knit us heart to heart 

it's not fancy, love in action

testing more than how one feels

 about the truth of attraction

after first love cools its heels

its a digging in together

so we do not drift apart

in our promise of 'forever'

love; not for the faint of heart

it's not fancy, love's meek glory

tempered by both smile and tear

it's as simple as 'I'm sorry'

**(it's as hard as this, my dear)

it's a bittersweet commitment

bringing out our worst and best

as we stick to the fulfillment

of  vows human natures test

it's not fancy, being faithful

being gentle, being strong

being unselfish and grateful

 helping each other along

following Jesus example

of a sacrificial life

it's not fancy, love's wonder-full

journey as husband and wife 

💖💖💖

Janet Martin

As life writes our love stories,

as years fall behind us so swiftly

faithful love of husband and wife reaps a harvest

so worth the effort.

and it's not fancy,

or glamourous,

(for by now we've both too often stumbled

and been soundly humbled) 

until all that is left to exclaim is

'thank-you God' for your faithfulness

making possible ours!

...and through it all we marvel at how love

doesn't look anything like we once envisioned, but the more beautiful

because of its weathering!

When we get to those seasons in marriage when we're sure it's not going to work,

it is vital we pray to God for His faithfulness to see us through,

to help us remain faithful to the vows we made before Him!

Nobody has a successful marriage because it is easy.

Faithfulness happens day by day...

the other day on Ann Voskamp's blog

this beautiful guest post!!

Day-to-Day Grace for your Marriage

Psalm 25:4

(a good prayer for marriage)

Show me your way, O Lord,

teach me your path.

** and a genuine 'I'm sorry' is not

"I'm sorry that you feel that I should be sorry for something

that I feel I don't need to be sorry for!!"😅

One of my fav love songs!

The Rose

Of Unrelenting Honor & By The Grace of God

Therefore, what God has joined together

let not man put asunder.

Mark 10:9

The above words grow more solemn as the years pass.

I've seen God tug the tie many times,

and I have seen man attempt to do it

leaving heartbreak harsher than

the sorrow of death in it's wake...

Today, but by God's grace

 Jim and I celebrate 34 years of marriage.

Because 'love is a many-splendored thing'

It's a two-poem celebration😅💕

Counting dating years we've been together for 40 roller-coaster years!

I'm playing a few of our favorite love songs today

Hello Love, Hank Snow

 

I'd Love You All Over Again- Alan Jackson

Of Unrelenting Honor...

Of cares weathered together

Of vows highly esteemed

Of tests to ‘I do’s’ tether

In ways we never dreamed

Of constant, sacred learning

Of faithfulness, because

There can be no returning

To life the way it was

Of compassionate living

And in ire’s pricks and stings

Of merciful forgiving

Because love bears all things

Of being understanding

When we don’t understand

Not selfishly demanding

To force the other’s hand

Of praying without ceasing

To be humble in heart

For there is no releasing

This pledge ‘ till death do part’

To be best friends forever

And never say, ‘I’m done’

When Satan tries to sever

The cord that makes two, one

Of sharing pain and pleasure

Committed to love’s vows

Of treasuring the measure

Of all God’s grace allows

And, whatever betide us

Of hilltop or of vale

Of asking Him to guide us

So, love will never fail

Of critique left unspoken

Of unuttered lament

Lest blame becomes love’s token

Rather than compliment

Of choosing to be grateful

Of laughing till we cry

Of fighting to be faithful

Until God pulls the tie

Of unrelenting honor

For love is like a cup

That always needs another 

...self cannot fill it up 

Let's fill it with an ocean

And in its pouring prove

With beholden devotion 

The greatest of these; love

© Janet Martin

But By the Grace of God (till death do part)

Not counting all the times, we didn’t see quite eye to eye

When your druthers and mine were like December meets July

When opposites that once seemed so attractive start to irk

As we reevaluate what it takes to make ‘us’ work

Not counting all the days when love's 'tone' was misunderstood

And we did not respond in ways like two grown adults should

When we behaved like rivals rather than husband and wife

I’d say we are exceptional at rocking married life

Not counting all the rules that unschooled mid-life love ignores

Until our tempers cool, no longer fooled by lion-roars/'winning' scores

I’d say in spite of all the times we bite instead of kiss

That you and I are prime examples of sweet, wedded bliss

I hope that life becomes a 'losing track of years' because

Of moment-thrum's momentous sums; the love-story of 'us'

Where, in spite of those times we blush some sad excuse to fend

We'll look back on a life of 'us'; love, faithful to the end

© Janet Martin

But By The Grace of God (til death doth part)

Poem-a-day challenge day 12:write a counting poem and/or not counting poem.

Not counting all the times, we didn’t see quite eye to eye

When your druthers and mine were like December meets July

When opposites that once seemed so attractive start to irk

As we reevaluate what it takes to make ‘us’ work

Not counting all the days when love's 'tone' was misunderstood

And we did not respond in ways like two grown adults should

When we behaved like rivals rather than husband and wife

I’d say we are exceptional at rocking married life

Not counting all the rules that unschooled mid-life love ignores

Until our tempers cool, no longer fooled by lion-roars/'winning' scores

I’d say in spite of all the times we bite instead of kiss

That you and I are prime examples of sweet, wedded bliss

I hope that life becomes a 'losing track of years' because

Of moment-thrum's momentous sums; the love-story of 'us'

Where, in spite of those times we blush some sad excuse to fend

We'll look back on a life of 'us'; love, faithful to the end

© Janet Martin

That's Marriage, Ladies and Gentlemen

 Celebrating thirty-three years of 'us'!

Photo credit: Brittany Ruppert

 

Just now...phone rings (9:30 p.m.)

Me; Hello?

Him; what are you doing? Why haven't you called yet?

Me; I'm trying to finish writing something for our thirty-third anniversary.

but WOW, it's really hard work at night with an old, tired head...

Him; oh good! I thought maybe you weren't going to do one this year!

Yes, he looks forward to seeing a daily blog-post even if he is not really a fan of poetry

(Jim, for those who don't know us is a truck-driver)

Knowing he appreciates it always helps to motivate me to at least try

 on days when it's really hard to squeeze it in...

(first stanza is inspired by a scene last Friday

and every. single. other. niece or nephew wedding. ever.!!!!)😅

We’re getting pretty good at it, he and I

I button his shirt while he fixes his tie

He steps into shoes I have placed at his feet

‘Getting ready for a wedding’ just hit repeat

Because for some reason there is always a delay

Come date-to-be-home-for-someone’s-wedding-day

He calls from the truck ‘run the water, dear

If you give me five minutes, we should be near-

Ly ready to go (wedding starts in ten)

That’s marriage, ladies and gentlemen

‘For better or worse’ no matter what shape or size

Something will shadow/shatter the stars in love’s eyes

Sooner or later, we are bound to find out

What marriage vows are really all about

After the honeymoon (or on it?) when patience is tried

When love startles us with its less polished side

When words are tested with mettle of will

When love seems lacking its fire and thrill

It’s time to make time for each other again

That’s marriage, ladies and gentlemen

This is forever, ‘till death do us part’

Where no one can sever what God joins in heart

For as we commit to be faithful and true

He ties a knot only He can undo

To love and to cherish, a most sacred oath

That takes the full faith and commitment of both

And trusting that what we will need, God will give

In keeping our promise as long as we live

As we renew love’s vows again and again

That’s marriage, ladies and gentlemen

© Janet Martin

I made the poster below when I was 16 or 17.

 (yeah, we were young 'uns when we started)

See our names down the side???😍

 

The Ten Commandments for Married Couples 

was given to us on our 10th Anniversary from my parents

For Better or Worse...

 Thanking God for the privilege of being able 

to celebrate 32 years of marriage today, by His grace...

Part of what I love about Jim is his never-ending ability to make me laugh.
I think he was waiting for an anniversary post cause he just saw it and texted me this
"I look like a pylon"😂

For better or for worse; who knows what factors will unfold

To test and try the caliber of vows to have and hold

This life of highs and lows husband and wife must jointly meet

To weather together both woe and wonders bittersweet

Marriage is no band-wagon that we board and disembark

According to our whims and wants; it is till death doth part

So from the words ‘I do’ we ought to keep this thought in mind

To help us strive to be more unselfish, patient and kind

For better or for worse is not a curse or ball and chain

It is the grace of sharing both love's pleasure and its pain 

It is full of surprises after groom kisses the bride

After two become one and discover love's 'other side' 😉

Marriage is more than signatures on a certificate

Two become one and none on earth its bond can abrogate

For what the Lord has joined His Hand alone will disannul

Till death doth part is not for faint of heart or disloyal

Marriage is learning to forgive and give more than we take

It’s saying I am sorry and admitting a mistake

It’s meeting in the middle toward a mutual aim

It’s learning to adapt to change; nobody stays the same

Marriage; it takes two but is always happier with Three

Husband and wife, with God as the crowning Supremacy

Where pray, that day by day and year by year as vows are tried

Marriage reflects the love that Heaven’s Groom has for His Bride

© Janet Martin

 Sharing Jean Hersey's practical and timeless thoughts on marriage

from the book The Shape of a Year

(hope you can read it...I couldn't choose a favourite paragraph) 

 

Jim and I are both Don Williams fans...

choosing these today