Yesterday we celebrated the child that turned Jim and I into grandparents!
Happy 7th Birthday, Grandson!
Simply being there may look like nothing much
(dear weary, young mother/parent),
but, is in essence, everything!
Oh, the efforts that may seem to count for nothing here
but may count for everything There!🙏🙏🙏
By God's grace, keep on.
Above, we simply see a birthday cake!!
not the baking of it by Very Sleep-deprived mom
after children are tucked into bed,
We don't see the many, messy, mundane, oops,
I mean SACRED interruptions/frustrations
to bring it to fulfillment!😅💓
Technology/screen-time has many negatives in the development of children BUT
this is one of the best positives; being able to laugh and chat with cousins
over 2000 kilometers away!!
“Children are not a distraction from more important work.
They are the most important work.”
– Dr. John Trainer
(according to
this site, the above quote is misattributed to C.S. Lewis)
Children are by far the most important work!
because...
Beneath the wide, missing-toothed grin
That six and seven year old sports
Beneath Innocent Countenance
That Time's Insistence soon aborts
Beneath the sweet Cocoon of Youth
Trembles an Immutable Flame
As irrefutable as Truth
Unthwarted by denial's claim
This truth kindles a deeper look
At faces that we love so dear
At babies nestled in arm's crook
At hugs, as we draw loved ones near
Because, beneath the part we see
Exists the Thing That Never Dies
The Cradle of Eternity
Has missing teeth and eager eyes
...a-sparkle with dream-giddy stars
Where footsteps that dash wild and free
Are bearing a most sacred charge
The Cradle of Eternity
Because, the part that melts the heart
With the velocity/Curiosity of Youth
Cradles the soul, that precious Part
That looks to us to teach/tell the Truth
© Janet Martin
Eccles.12:1
Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them"—
I began the poem below yesterday...
Inspired in part by this passage
(which also helped inspire the above poem)
For He established a testimony in Jacob,
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers,
That they should make them known to their children;
That the generation to come might know them,
The children who would be born,
That they may arise and declare them to their children,
That they may set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments;...
from this devotion...
from this book...
Before the poem was completed Eagerness arrived to steal the show with sweetness!
when Little Brother noticed Big Sister about to be the 'star',
he, ever-so-full-of -'innocent'-mischief did his thing😂😂😇
Can't you just about hear his very enthusiastic 'CHE-E-E-ESE!!'💖😅
We still managed one without his shenanigans
(that keep everyone laughing and pulling their hair out!😂😅)
After they left, Gramma needed a nap before
heading out to above birthday celebration!
Today's most estimable part is valuable to know
Though its most vital works of art may never steal the show
It ought to stoke a lion’s roar in hearts of you and me
Because today swings wide the Door of Opportunity
Where what we do with what we have holds more than first appears
The impact of Now’s aftermath fills more than yesteryears
As repercussion of reply unravels in its wake
A footpath forged by you and I, for future feet to take
Today’s most estimable part is sacred to the touch
Though, at first glance its works of art may not appear as much
Beneath the part we see the root establishes the tree
That will, for good or ill, bear fruit for all eternity
Sometimes eternity can feel far off, and quite unreal
Sometimes Impulse can spar and scoff at God’s/time’s/love’s patient appeal
Sometimes, today’s most estimable gift, we hardly see
As God fills up the cup we lift with Opportunity
© Janet Martin
Let's not lose heart by dwelling on
opportunities lost or missed
but seize the part we build upon;
Now,
goodness-glossed and mercy-kissed
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