A Birthday Poem

(birthday girl front left)

Food, (Mrs. Mitchell's) flowers and fellowship.
Can't think of a better way to spend a day with mom and sisters
celebrating Carolyn's birthday (4th sister to turn 50)!

A birthday, what a special gift
From He who grants its rite
While closing in the sacred rift
When faith will turn to sight

A birthday, what a perfect time
To humbly celebrate
God’s mercies that tumble and climb
Over hope’s weathered wait/gate

A birthday to cherish with love
Is a perfect chance too
To thank God for the beauty of
The lovely gift of you


© Janet Martin

Every good and perfect gift is from above,

 coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, 

who does not change like shifting shadows

 

James 1:17

A Birthday Wish/Blessing

 

  

Happy 26th Birthday, Melissa,

A hardworking, caring, compassionate, beautiful woman!

God bless you in the year ahead💝

This birthday wish, my dear is rather closer to a prayer
That God will bless and keep you in His ever loving care
For what more can we hope for than His hand over our own
And His abiding promise that we are never alone

This birthday wish my dear may look like ink upon a page
Its appearance quite common, while love walks/stumbles to center stage
And struggles to put into perfect words its tender art
For birthday wishes are a small piece of your mother’s heart

This birthday wish is like a blessing; filled with hope’s increase
That in the year ahead God’s presence brings you joy and peace
For what more can we ‘wish’ for than the confidence He grants
Of knowing He is with us no matter the circumstance

This birthday wish is like a candle when faith’s light grows dim
For all that changes, nothing ever rearranges Him
Where there is much more to this verse than first glance can impart
This birthday wish, my dear, is like a small piece of God’s heart

This birthday wish is rather like a prayer of thankfulness
No matter where we are He never leaves or forsakes us
Then, what more can we wish for in life’s little day-to-day
Than One who sees right where we are and hears us when we pray

Love, Mom

Aka © Janet Martin

 

Prov.3:5-8

 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.^[a]

⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord and shun evil.
⁸ This will bring health to your body
    and nourishment to your bones.

We, By Ourselves Cannot Love

 “I am the vine, you are the branches. 

He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; 

for without Me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

We watched a much needed rain fall these past few days!

This rain however did not dampen the spirits on the weekend
at our family reunion/Jim's mom's 89th birthday celebration

because love is bigger than weather and such...

(Cake credit to Daughter-in-law Lucille )

Dear Mother,

Through the years in tears and laughter you were there,

 gentle and tough

Teaching us the tender meaning of this four letter word; love

Hard and heavy were the sorrows that you weathered

by God’s grace

Showing us by your example how to shoulder what we face

Through the ups and downs of living you found strength 

for care through prayer

For the taking and the giving that a mother learns to bear

Mother dear, we want to thank you

for all that you are and do

And a birthday is the perfect time to say that we love you

© Janet Martin

Love fills in the gaps that otherwise would gape with want.

Love comes in all shapes and surprises,
often wrapped in disappointment and trouble!

Love is not a solo-sport!
 Love is our solace and support!

And we only find love from God through others.

 How often does getting what Self pined for, fall short of the happiness-mark?!

We alone do not have within us the means to make ourselves happy!
We alone do not have within us, love...

We by ourselves do not possess noble ability

To love; it lacks genuineness of true humility

No matter how good the intention, thought is self-inclined

And often needs God’s intervention to keep motive kind

We, by ourselves will never find true happiness, it lies

Within the hustle-bustle of love’s hellos and goodbyes

It overflows in hearts and eyes as we hold and let go

And grants a glimpse of paradise still scarred with shards of woe

We often overlook the lining in burdens we bear

Or misunderstand the refining that is wrought through care

Where we all need each other to accompany and aid

Us in this sister-brother-father-mother promenade

When life’s sailing is smooth, soon Self becomes careless and cold

And undermines the truth of Who lends all we have and hold

The ties that bind us close both to God and to fellowman

Are woven not with threads we chose but oft by change of plan

A branch cannot bear anything unattached to The Vine

A dead and fruitless withering, ah, this is God’s design

For we by ourselves cannot produce flourishing fields

Love and humility, the fruits only Attachment yields

© Janet Martin

I Love You, (A Birthday Poem)

Happy Birthday Emily!

Wishing you God's blessing today and in the year ahead.

Keep shining for Him!

May He bless you as you bless others!

It's a joy to share mother-to-daughter...

  but also mother-to-mother💗

 I love you!

How does one find new ways to say

Endearment’s oldest sweetest phrase

Or capture in poetic lay

Emotion’s oceanic waves

The affection we try to tout

In lines, original and new

Always seem incomplete without

Three little words, so tried, so true

I love you

How does one spell a heart; the art

Of tenderness is hard to snare

It sparkles in salt stars that smart

And catch in our throats somewhere

Where all the verses we compose

Will never leave us quite content

Without this three syllable rose

To satisfy soul’s sentiment  

I love you

Our first words breathed on newborn’s cheek

As we greet babe so pure and new

Our homage to the frail and weak

When no other wording will do

Three words to summarize the whole

When a thousand are not enough

Three words to capture heart and soul

But perfect, when it comes to love

I love you

How swift the days and seasons blur

Into a panoramic sweep

Autumn, winter, spring and summer

With oh, so little we can keep

Save pictures pressed into a place

Where rough edges are gilt with gold

And all that there is left to trace

Are three words that never grow old

I love you

© Janet Martin

Traditional Birthday verses but that's because 

we never outgrow the need for this reminder...

Prov.3:5-8

 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge Him,

and He will make your paths straight.

Be not wise in your own eyes;

fear the LORD and turn away from evil.

This will bring healing to your body

and refreshment to your bones.

The Momentum of Moments...

Happy Birthday. Jim!

thank-you for wearing out many a work-shoe on our behalf.

We love you!!

These work shoes have weathered many a mile

and, if in the kitchen some glares fierce and mean

of which you seem to enjoy as you smile

and reply, "relax honey, they're clean!"

The bread you win I've buttered and packed

Into sandwich-miles so you can eat on the run  (you're known for that)

The muffins I've made for your lunches, when stacked

I dare say could almost touch the sun

The food you carry the is same EVERY week, yes!! (for years)

Bananas and cornflakes, muffins and cheese

Yogurt, fruit,  somersausage sandwiches

Lately you've relented to "take salad, please!"

(p.s. the jif-jar is applesauce, not peanut-butter😊 )

 Happy Birthday Jim, and God bless you, my dear

And keep you safe where many dangers lurk (like moose!! close call this week)

May He keep His hands over yours as you steer

And give you strength to do your work (like cleaning out trailers)

The momentum of moments always startles us somehow

As we constantly marvel at the pace of here and now

Life’s mosaic of days gone by expands, the commonplace

A humbling recollection of God’s faithfulness and grace

Time leaves us at a loss for words where seasons disappear

And in its dexterous demise adds on another year

While we are busy looking after love’s constant demands

With legacy of work worn shoes and labour-weathered hands

We ought to not look back too long, yet long enough to count

The blessings overflowing from an invisible fount

Where fight songs we once flaunted with presumptuous flippancy

Have softened to a much more modest, thankful melody

No matter what our age, there’s always something new to learn

As we begin to bear the brunt of Bygone’s no return

We need to build each other up while we are breaking down

We need to keep on smiling even when we’d rather frown

Because Time waits for no man in its courses we must brave

And much of what has shaped us will follow us to the grave

The ways we’ve become set in too established to undo

Save perhaps this; to say more often these words, I love you

© Janet Martin