Beyond Perfect Description...

2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 5

For the 2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge,

 poets write a poem a day in the month of November.

 Day 5 is to write a description poem.

It's tots naps-time so I couldn't resist a crack at today's prompt.

Especially after fresh inspiration 

Your darling grin

can melt my heart

like ice-cream 

in July

You turn me very young

and old

You make me laugh

and cry

And as you slip 

your hand

 in mine

I feel so very small

until the way 

you look at me

makes me feel 

ten feet tall

Your innocence 

is holy ground

to hold your hand 

in mine

gives me a sense of

of being held

twixt mortal 

and divine

Dear precious, loving,

eager tot

so tender and 

so smart

You make me feel

as if I hold

the whole world

in my heart

Words fail, each time 

I try to spell 

love's ink-defying 

charms

Like trying to 

gather the sky 

and ocean

 in my arms  

Janet 💖

I played this song for them

this morning...they giggled with delight

I Love, Tom T Hall,

Beautiful Innocence...

Mark 9:36-37

36Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them.

And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them,

37“Whoever receives/welcomes one of these little children in My name 

receives/welcomes Me;

and whoever receives/welcomes Me, 

receives/welcomes not Me but Him who sent Me.”

What holiest of holy honour to diligently pour our best

into the ministry of their equipping/training, 

at home, school and church!,

And, as we do so, often we are trained in the way we should go,

 as we seek to train them in the way they should go...

“Children are not a distraction from more important work.

They are the most important work.”

– Dr. John Trainer

To leave children without principles is

not to make them free

but it is to render them helpless!!

Alistair Begg in Teach Your Children Well Part 2 of 4)

I am often breathlessly honoured and awed

as my life/arms are run through with Innocence,

a sacred charge from God!

beautiful innocence

precious and pure in heart

tender target 

for influence

so subtle at the start

sweet curiosity

how eager childhood's haste

so much to hear! 

so much to see!

so much to touch and taste

how sacred is the role

of training children, oh

 to tell of faith 

that saves the soul

of God who loves them so

to teach Innocence truth

is life's most somber charge

to earnestly 

equip fair youth 

to face the world at large

How vile to shirk love's due

to watch innocence dim

then, loose/lose them 

without virtue to

ungoverned want and whim

sweet innocence indeed

precious and pure, so then

 we ought to give 

most earnest heed

to how we lead. amen 

Janet Martin

Ps.78:1-7

Give ear, O my people, to my instruction;

listen to the words of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth in parables;

I will utter things hidden from the beginning,b

3that we have heard and known

and our fathers have relayed to us.

4We will not hide them from their children

but will declare to the next generation

the praises of the LORD and His might

and the wonders He has performed.

5For He established a testimony in Jacob

and appointed a law in Israel,

which He commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

6that the coming generation would know them—

even children yet to be born—

to arise and tell their own children

7that they should put their confidence in God,

not forgetting His works,

but keeping His commandments...

Internal Exhale...

 "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Phil.4:4-6

(read the whole glorious chapter HERE)

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I will say, rejoice!

5Let your [b]gentleness be known

 to all men.

 The Lord is at hand.

6Be anxious for nothing,

but in everything 

by prayer and supplication, 

with thanksgiving, 

let your requests 

be made known to God;

  7and the peace of God, 

which surpasses all understanding,

 will guard your hearts and minds 

through Christ Jesus.

O, I have ceased the need to rush as if my life depends on it

Content to watch the hush of dawn dissolve the darkness once again...

O, I have ceased to strain on reins that once vexed youth's audacity

Content to bask in the delight of little children, starry-eyed...

To marvel at a world a-thunder with God's creativity...

(I would love if someone could ID this bird! It fluttered/ ran ahead of me,

a bit curious at the intruder 😅)

forgive my blurry zoom lens

Content to learn from weightless wings, unhindered by tomorrow's care

To be taught by Child's innocence is to be astonished by joy...

'o-h--h! I can't wait till three o'clock, snack time!!!' sighed

Miss Sweet as sweet-can-be at two-thirty.

'Oh my! replied I, completely at a loss as how to live up to her anticipation/expectation.

'Do you like popcorn?' I asked, relieved I had one snack staple on hand.

Her pause suggested a 'no'. 

'Actually, what I am really wishing for is fresh bran muffins' 

(NOT what I was expecting at all, but so relieved. lol!)

'Guess what?!" I said. 'This very morning I was wishing for fresh bran muffins!!'

So, fresh bran muffins it was 💖😋

The day before our snack was breakfast cookies (click link)

 and Little Helper's verdict; so YUMMY!

They are the perfect mid-afternoon slump snack

O, I have ceased the need to rush as if my life depends on it

Content to watch the hush of dawn dissolve the darkness once again

To light Time's face with God's kind grace outpoured for our benefit

To tune the countenance of hope with love and joy and peace. Amen

O, I have ceased to strain on reins that once vexed youth's audacity

Content to bask in the delight of little children, starry-eyed

To marvel at a world a-thunder with God's creativity

To linger in November's dusk; brusque blush and blue-bathed countryside

O, I have ceased the futile quest of clinging to what none can claim

Content to let the gauze hemline of seasons slip through unclenched will

To be still and know He who fills boundless firmaments with His Name

Anoints each moment with His brush, as Today's Masterpieces spill 

O, I have ceased to Want for things, whose ownership death will destroy 

Content to learn from weightless wings, unhindered by tomorrow's care

To be taught by Child's innocence is to be astonished by joy

As meeker gratitude enriches happiness beyond compare 

O, I have ceased to be encumbered by Bygones I cannot wrest 

Content to concentrate on faces and favours still within reach 

To let the sorrows of this world be comforted by Heaven's Best

And wonder at the holy pleasure only God, through grief, can teach

O, I have ceased to pursue answers for His higher thoughts and ways

Content to know that He is able to do exceedingly more

Than I can think to think; then, with nothing but humbler, purer praise 

To take up faith's cross like a child, and trust God for what lies before  

O, I have ceased the need to rush as if my life depends on it

Content to watch the brush of dawn undo the darkness once again

And light Time's face with God's kind grace outpoured for our benefit

To tune the countenance of hope with love and joy and peace. Amen

© Janet Martin

While I was wrestling with the second last stanza of this poem 

my daughter, Victoria sent me a message, simply this;

Enjoying this collection of hymns this morning 😊

(and suddenly, as I listened, like a little miracle

the words fell into place!)

Tennessee Ernie Ford Hymns at Home

Thank-you God, for 'faces and favours still within reach' !

Thank-you for my family and friends, 

pouring out/in so many precious ways

to comfort me 🙏

Bless each one today! 

A Love Beyond Compare

One of my Sunday School students presented this artwork to me yesterday;

a picture she drew (with permission😇) while listening to the lesson!

I love my class of smart, beautiful, eager, full-of-potential school-girls!

Thank-you K.S.

My earnest prayer for all our Sunday School students,

is that the Holy Spirit would begin to waken and nurture,

as we gather weekly, (and as weeks turn into years,)

not just a belief in God but a love for God.

That they would get more than an education in Bible stories and facts,

but that the plan and gift of salvation would begin to unfold

a lifelong awe, reverence and wonder for God's love and grace!

Will you join me in praying too?!

They are little for such a very little time!

I also pray that we, their teachers, parents and grandparents 

live pure and humble testimonies

of genuine love for the Saviour of our souls

and the Lord of our lives!

***

Matthew 5:16 - Let your light so shine before men,

that they may see your good works, 

and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

***

Let's live love over and above

What Duty delegates

Let's love God, wonderfully awed

By His goodness and grace

Let's live aware of eyes that care-

fully watch every move 

Where actions shout and leave no doubt

About who we most love

Let's live a life of joy, not strife

Let's pay most earnest heed

To what we sow, because we know

Soon fruit follows the seed 

Soon innocence will climb time's fence

And leave childhood behind

Let's live love over and above

With every child in mind 

Before the heart grows hard, let's start

To plant, with tender care

Awareness of God's wondrous love:

A love beyond compare 

Janet~

Ephesians 5:1-2

 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 

 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,

 a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Today Twofer ...Cradle of Eternity and Today's Most Estimable Gift

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) 

Ps.78:5-7

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

No Commonplace Charge (is parenting)

Baby is teething and objects loudly to being put down for long...

Mommy is so weary!🙏

...with these two to keep her on her toes (and knees) besides!

I am no longer parenting little children but

I am grand-parenting little children 

which makes the messages below very relevant to my season of life as well!

***

To leave children without principles is

not to make them free but it is to render them helpless

Alistair Begg in Teach Your Children Well Part 2 of 4)

We have within our keeping a very precious charge

of innocence soon reaping the harvest of its guards

no commonplace appointing from God, is parenthood

a baby the anointing of wonder, pure and good 

we have within our caring, besides child's sweet delight

the onus of preparing the soul-dier for the fight

no commonplace employment is the call they bestow

far more than mere enjoyment of watching Soul-dier grow  

we have within our reaching (for such a little time)

wide flung windows of teaching far more than nursery rhyme 

no commonplace vocation to all whom God assigns

the careful cultivation of very tender vines

What a priceless investment; the training of a child

how soon the world's resistance tests with lures, lie-defiled

no commonplace endurance, a parent's prayers outpoured

For wisdom and assurance established in God's Word

we have within our asking a very present Aid

Who tenders with love's tasking, commands to be obeyed

For this is no small gracing, a child, innocence-wrought

But a Soul-dier soon facing life, armed with what was taught  

© Janet Martin

Link to all four messages in this series below

Teach Your Children Well (Part 1 of 4)

Teach Your Children Well Part 2 of 4)

Teach Your Children Well (Part 3 of 4)

Teach Your Children Well (Part 4 of 4)

Of Arms and Hearts (or, They Grow So Fast)

 It feels like we just did this but we did it again...celebrate granddaughter's birthday!!

They grow so fast we sigh, as seasons fly through arms and hearts

Where none can tame the twinkle in time’s eye or change its ways

The child soon tries its wings, tugging on strings that love imparts

While teaching us to treasure the fleet measure of Todays

For time is never idle; none can tame or bridle clocks

Childhood’s tower of make-believe soon tumbled by hard knocks

They grow so fast we cry, while milestones make us laugh and weep

Robbing us of ready reply when we try to explain

Love’s gladness that runs rife with sorrow for what none can keep

Where each wee babe soon tests the play of love’s parental rein

The brief heaven of innocence soon startled by a Voice

As the gavel of consequence falls on the heels of Choice

They grow so fast we say, and pray the Lord their souls to guard

With angel armies, for this world is full of deadly snares

Where soon our arms are lowered and the garden gate unbarred

And off they go; but never out of reach of tender prayers

Or the eternal cradle-dear, that no child can outgrow

The heart that keeps them near no matter where their feet may go

© Janet Martin 

Grand-daughter's 'prince' freeing the princess...

Found the sweet poem above in this book!

They Talk About Mermaid Tattoos

Ending an era with this little gal today; 

she is soon to be a proud Big Sister

(She doesn't know that she is the latest owner of a piece of Janet's heart💖)

But oh, what a perfectly-precious farewell day

with two of my favorite little gal-pals💕

It doesn't look like it here but oh, the conversation...😅💗💗💗

They talk about Mermaid tattoos

And Minions Bubble-bath and things

Like, how when thoap getth in your eyeth/soap gets in your eyes

It ‘really-really-very-thtingth’ /stings

And nothing is impossible

In a world not yet four years old

Still oblivious to the pull

Of Bygone’s oceanic hold

Their dollies board yoga-mat ships

Where giggling captains shout ahoy

And take the silliest of trips

To snack-time’s high-five, five-star joy

While we find life a gladder charge

In the delightful company

Of Darling Innocence at large

And pure and precious as can be

How unaware-ly they arrange

A gallery of mementos

Where nothing in the world can change

The pictures that these halls enclose

While heartstrings twang and tangle, oh

Where hold-and-letting-go soft-spars

With laughter-spangles lilting glow

And a sweet blur of salty stars

They stir a thankful melody

For pink-frock perfect happiness

For little girls, still fancy-free

Where childhood is earth’s heaven-ness

Before the slick wink of an eye

That turns us into hoarder’s of

Artwork that money cannot buy

Masterpieces entitled 'Love'

© Janet Martin

This sunny-deck tea-party was not just to say farewell

but to honor a birthday girl as well!

Happy 22nd Birthday, Victoria!

The little girls watched as I wrapped Victoria's birthday gift!

Granddaughter was SO excited!!

I reminded them that it's a secret so don't tell her!!

and they gave me their solemn word

...until, over come with excitement for her auntie's birthday

Grand daughter blurted out

'you have a gift and it's your two favorite-est books!😂💝💝💝