A Birthday Prayer For You, Dear Mother (For Each and Every Day)

 

On Saturday, Lord willing, Mom will

celebrate her 83rd birthday!

Today we gathered for our annual 

daughter-daughter-in-law birthday 'tea' .

The past two years have been so bittersweet as we

miss Lucy at these gettogethers.

The photo below of mom and dad, was taken on Sept. 17,

on Lucy's porch swing.

Mom and dad are getting older and with aging comes new challenges

that require fresh leaps of faith and courage.

With these changes I pray that we (their family) return

in every way we can, the help and sacrifice

they modeled so generously through their whole life! 

A Birthday Prayer for You, Dear Mother

(for each and every day)

May God’s unfailing hope and love

And might and mercy cheer

Each step of faith with His Enough

To calm the storms of fear

May God’s enduring promises

Anoint faith’s earnest prayer

With Very Present Help to bless

And meet each need and care

May God’s sufficient grace increase

As years go by, to gird

Each longing of the soul with peace

And courage through his Word

May God’s abiding Spirit fill

Your heart with comfort true

No matter what befalls, He will

Not fail to care for you

Dear Mother, may God’s goodness bear

And bind you night and day

With joy and peace beyond compare

In Jesus Name I pray

Amen

Rom.15:13

Now the God of hope

fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

that ye may abound in hope,

through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Ps.46:1

God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

Praise God For You, Dearest of Dads

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; 

so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

4 Delight thyself also in the Lord: 

and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord:

and he delighteth in his way.

Ps.37:3,4 & 23

Today is the birthday of a man who

I love and respect/admire beyond words!

Happy 84th Birthday, Dad

Praise God, when you were young you gave your life to Him then sought

To walk in paths of righteousness, by His Word led and taught

A lamp unto your feet, a light to shine upon a way

You could not see but knew the Truth will never lead astray

Praise God for the good man whose steps are ordered by the Lord

Who knows, without God's armour he will fall prey to the world 

Who loves the tender Shepherd and the Saviour of the soul

And seeks to honour Him as he presses toward faith's Goal

Praise God for dads who teach their children to obey and trust

The kind Heavenly Father who remembers 'we are dust' 

And like Him, they are patient too, when live-and-learning' errs

And all that he can do is keep them in his earnest prayers

Praise God for you, dearest of dads, and beloved, more and more

As your children grow older and more humbly thankful for

The example you gave us that no money can afford 

Of the steps of a good man that are ordered by the Lord

Janet Martin

Of What Will Never Change...

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever:

with my mouth I will make known Thy faithfulness

to all generations.

Ps.89:1

Dear family...

This is a one-birthday-poem-for-all-of-you!

Better late than never!

We celebrated the last family-birthday of the year yesterday 💝

(Happy 31st, Melissa!)

...and this poem began 'hatching' as I cherished the moments

with my 'brood' 😅

Back when you were much smaller and I was much younger too

Often it seemed my mother-heart would burst with love for you

And, try as I would, I could not find words to fit the joy

A mother feels when she beholds her precious girl or boy

Back before time stole what I thought would last much longer then

Before tours of tomorrow turned you to women and men

Often, I thought my heart could burst with love, defying speech

As I grappled with the discourse of much to learn and teach

Back in youth’s green-gold mold, replete with hold-and-letting-go

While days turned into stars, that fell and melted like spring-snow

I never dreamed how, as time flew through weathered best and worst

My love would always make my heart feel as if it could burst

Back then I thought that life’s best days would leave love feeling blue

As arms and laps, then rooms released the present-ness of you

But for all that the call of life is destined to estrange

My heart still feels like it could burst with what will never change

My mother-heart will always feel like it could burst with love

The tenderness that stole my breath when you were small, still does

The love that followed all your firsts in prayers you never knew

Remains the same; my love and prayers will always follow you

© Janet Martin

...and that goes for my grandma-heart too 🙏💖

Granddaughter is distressed over

her 'looth tooth', hanging by a thread,

which she finally let mommy tug out with some thread

just in time to enjoy the dinner

The above video ends with youngest Grand-sonny asking if he can finally

have some of the M&M's he spotted in the pantry 😂💘

While My Body Grins and Groans (I want to take nothing for granted)

Recently I have heard more than one person say they don't want to take anything for granted!

I echo this sentiment in today's reflection of birthday celebration weekend.

Ps.90:12

So teach us to number our days, 

That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Thank-you God, for

 Fridge-foragers...

Father and son discussions (on the merits of certain hockey players etc.) 😅

Impromptu Sat. afternoon surprise coffee break... thank-you Emily and fam!

(Missed a pic of the delicious raspberry lemon scones, still oven-warm!)

Precious birthday-celebration dinner-guests...

 (my parents)

and Victoria...

 Dear Husband, May I never take you for granted

(too often, sadly, I do!)

esp. your hat-tossing habits 😐😏 which haven't changed

 since mentioned HERE on last year's anniversary poem...

Special sister time...

even more special in a peony garden !

Whistling Gardens near Brantford, ON

(below, a few of fifty+ pics of peonies)

Sister smelling the 'roses' while her hubby

scouts out ice-cream shops on homeward route 😊😂💖

I want to take nothing for granted in life's little Learn and Teach

Where soon each gifted day is planted in a garden out of reach

I want to wonder at God's grandeur; be mesmerized by His grace,

To be fine-tuned to tender splendour till nothing seems common place

Collecting through life's gains and losses, a much gladder gratitude   

Braving love's charge of shouldered crosses by trusting Mercy Renewed 

Contented in the Steadfast Knowing, come what may God never fails

His love is constantly bestowing winds to test and steer faith's sails

I want to take nothing for granted, where blooms briefly beam and nod 

But to be more humbly enchanted by the handiwork of God 

He, who attends both joy and sorrow maintains nature's threaded loom 

I want to live today without tomorrow's borrowed dread and doom 

I want to manifest His Presence in the peace of Letting Go

Where true happiness is, in essence, this; trusting His yes and no

Confident that the One who began a good work will see it through  

The Author of salvation's plan is faithful, trustworthy and true 

I want to take nothing for granted in life's leap from Him to Him 

Soon morning's newborn ray is slanted westward; soon Today grows dim

While epitaphs that time composes sets gasps in permanent ink

Like a storm of thorns and roses scattered, blood-red and blush-pink 

As breath-by-breath's brimming succession spills life's sacred, fleeting Toll

Wreathed by dust-to-dust's grim profession of death's claim of all but Soul 

So, before my hulled husk is planted in a garden of grave-stones

I want to take nothing for granted while my body grins and groans 

I do not want to take for granted the sheer wonder of it all

Or become dumbly disenchanted just because the petals fall

Or love's smile-and-tear weathered tether snaps; the ties that bind undone

By the Hand that brought us together; nothing new under the sun

Rousing us, Self-heady-prone dreamers to face raw reality

Time's transient flash of  vapour/paper streamers unhinges eternity 

So, while life's precious plot is planted with memories that love makes 

I do not want to take for granted that which God both gives... and takes 

© Janet Martin

I do not want to take for granted the sheer wonder of it all

Or become dumbly disenchanted just because the petals fall...

Thank-you God, for another birthday...

Thank-you for sisters/family and friends

 who showered me with beautiful birthday wishes

and flowers...

I came home yesterday, a bit peony-high

to find a new variety of peony (Dark Eyes) a deep burgundy-red

 at my door, from my friend's garden!

thank-you Kim 💖

I was also sweetly blessed by a begonia-planter 

in memory of the begonias Lucy gave all of us sisters last year,

from my sister Marlene 💗💔

Some flowers in the hue of the flowers Lucy gave us sisters last year

(because the peachy-coloured begonias were sold out)

From my sister Carolyn...we 'watered' them with a few mingled, tender tears;

Love's universal language

I'll admit it was an extra-teary birthday.

I miss Lucy with profound tenderness in times like these

so I took out the book she gave me in place of a card last year...

 

Beyond Words

Whether our children are babies, adolescent,

teen, or adult a mother's love

is beyond spelling...

fierce and tender,

firm and gentle,

sweet and staunch,

watchful and brave,

forever and ever

I told Victoria that the poem I posted last week isn't really her 'official'

birthday poem, but every time I try to put my love into a poem

I am at a loss for words...

How does one spell the holy, humbling

deeps of love ?!

Dear mothers, you know that 'feeling', right?

As you look at your children, no matter their age

and you are rushed through with a tidal wave of

compassion, concern and thankfulness...

Mother's love is a language

commonly penned with the domestic ink

of cooking and baking,

cleaning and laundry,

and little extra-touches to make home

a gentle, orderly and happy place

that says

'I love you'

Victoria chuckled at the over-tanned smiley faces garnishing

one of our suppers last week...

It transcends tender thought

It defies utterance

It strains but yet has never wrought

Perfected eloquence

It fills a treasure trove

Where ink-penchant runs wild

But cannot tame to words, the love

Mother has for her child

It evades wistful rhymes

Medley of smiles and tears

And prayers to fill ten-thousand times

The cannikin of years

It gapes in grasping sighs

Through hold and letting go

It glints, like hints of paradise

Caught in a flake of snow

To write a mother’s love

Seems to elude Her pen

While evoking cries of 'enough

To try and try again'

To temper onto page

The ocean of the soul

To grant a glimpse of age to age 

Where wordless poems roll

 

© Janet Martin

3 John 1:4

 I have no greater joy than to hear 

that my children are walking in the truth.

Take a (Humbler) Moment...

Yesterday we celebrated our sweet Victoria's 24th Birthday

Every celebration (esp. since Sept. 17) is raw with humbler awareness 

of life's uncertainty/vulnerability...

My sister Lucy's husband and daughter were a special part

of the celebration; unspoken sorrow tuning our laughter

with kinder joy...

It is with unspeakable tenderness that we treasure the halo of faces

around a dinner table! 

 

(I'm not sure why the beginning and end of 

the song is cut off) oh, well...

***

Ah, take a moment, drink it in; the clime of Time is hasting

Its dawn-to-dusk designed to win the present we are tasting

Where nothing stays the same for long; each season, farewell-smitten

While deathless lyrics to Our Song of Life are being written

Sometimes, while in the bloom of love eyes close, never to waken

The loom that weaves The Mortal Glove, by God given and taken

Then, take a moment more to treasure the halo of faces

Around the table; prize love’s pleasure nothing else replaces

Behold the bud of virgin morn, like a flower unfolding

Where soon the bloom of it is borne to Bygone’s holy holding

Each bud a little like a door that God opens and closes

So, take a humbler moment more to thank Him for life’s roses

For no one knows the day nor hour He will bend without pardon

To pluck another precious flow’r from this world’s wanting garden

Then, drink with mindful regard from a fount filled by life’s Giver

With Ink of Moments that become Our Song of Life forever

Janet Martin

Acts 1:7

Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons

that the Father has fixed by His own authority

( our community is in deep mourning once again;

last week a young husband and father of five,

lost his life in a tragic accident).

Behold the bud of virgin morn, like a flower unfolding

Where soon the bloom of it is borne to Bygone’s holy holding

Each bud a little like a door that God opens and closes

So, take a humbler moment more to thank Him for life’s roses...

God Bless You As You Celebrate...

I have four friends celebrating birthdays today!

A 70th, a 61st, a 50th, and a sweet young 30-something 💝

Happy Birthday, Karen, Debbie, Kim and Paula!

All of you have enriched my life immensely!

Esp. in the past 5 mos. 🙏

God bless you are you celebrate.

God bless you as you celebrate the gift each birthday brings

An opportunity to count the gifts we sometimes miss

For life is full of cares crowding to cloud love's finer things

Caught between hello hugs that lead to farewell's tender kiss

God bless you as you celebrate each face-to-face delight 

Let a firm handshake steal your breath, let laughter make you cry

With joy and thankfulness for everybody you hold tight

And never take for granted looking loved ones in the eye

God bless you are you celebrate another year complete

Where highs and lows collect in settled dust of Past, surreal 

And Today, Happy Birthday, grants a milestone, bittersweet

Because no one can hold at bay, Time's hastening appeal 

 

God bless you as you celebrate the give and take of love

And make the most of Here and Now, because we cannot see

How near or far we are to where the Soul slips off its glove

And leaves behind the precious treasure of A Memory

Love, from Janet 

And to all of us who have or will, 

Lord willing, celebrate a birthday this year!

Author unknown for the poem below...

Grief-frames

Happy 82nd Birthday, dear Mom born Nov.1, 1942

(photo credit on this post goes to my sister Marlene)

Yesterday, at my mother's annual birthday tea-party

the presence of each other seemed more treasured,

 our love more tender than ever before,

in the light of grief...

My mom asked if she could host it

(for the first time ever) in what has been a tradition

for SO many years!

If Lucy were here I could count on her to remember

when it started, who hosted it

and maybe even what she was wearing and

if/who she was pregnant with...

😅😂💖

She had an incredible memory!! 

Because mom hosted it, Dad could enjoy the celebration too 💝

(although we have another one on Sunday that includes our men as well)

Grief ebbs, then rushes in like a billow, invisible

It rolls through heart and soul with staggering intensity

It strips us of all pretense; Love's most severe crucible

As God, who IS love, tries the Part that He alone can see

Grief sends us on a journey we would never choose to take

Around and 'round a gaping void, veiled by façades, skin-thin

It winds heartstrings through phantom frames where echoes tug and ache

Woven from moments not unlike the moments we are in

Grief moans like autumn's lonely wind through woodlands, leaf-bereft

It sobs, like summer, silenced by its sum of Season-sand

From detonated dreamlands, it examines what is left

Sifting through drifts of rubble diamond-dust, where once Love laughed and planned

Grief teaches us to live with an 'if the Lord wills' regard

To love as if Today could be the last for you or me  

It stirs holier handling of dawn's invitation card

Because Today does not come with a Morrow-guarantee  

Grief metes Love's Must; relentless thrust of waves, dash-crash-recede 

Then, with renewed velocity, returns with wrenching pains 

To wander rooms, once full of Innocence we did not heed

Where now his/her essence of presence, like a shadow remains

Grief takes us to the arms of friends and family so dear

And it is no coincidence, it drives us to our knees

To draw us to The Sacred Solace of God's list'ning ear 

*And glimpses to the Inner Room of Heaven's Mysteries/Sympathies

Janet 💔🙏

The verses below comfort me constantly,

as I lift my wordless groans to God's intercession

Rom.8:26-27

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. 

We do not know what we ought to pray for, 

but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 

 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, 

because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people 

in accordance with the will of God.

Below, yesterday's timely and profound devotion

from the book Streams in the Desert, Vol.1

(* this devotion articulates splendidly, the last line in today's poem)

While I was working on this post

a friend sent me these words...

She is mourning the loss of a friend who passed away this week.

"God is so gracious and so tender,

 even though we might never get the ‘why’ on this side of heaven."

Thank-you, Joanne!

(Her friend was released from a brave battle with ALS)

And last but not least...

My mom with her salt and pepper shaker collection

200+ pairs!

Yesterday she invited each of us to choose a pair,

before she gives her grandchildren the opportunity to do the same

I chose these Siamese cats.

They have lived in my mother's china hutch since

before I was born.

From her friend Mary (Mrs. Abner Martin)

My two 'little sisters' enjoying their choices!

Lucy was the middle sister...