Crucial Consideration

Earth's annual flower-carousel has begun to twirl...

and, our days are like the flowers...

a brief bloom at best!

1 Peter 1:24

For, “All flesh is like grass, 

and all its glory like the flowers of the field; 

the grass withers and the flowers fall,

Considering that you and I

Are here for such a little bit

It behooves all of us to try

To make the very most of it

To do the very best we can

To honor God with word and deed

To truly love our fellowman

And not to want more than we need

©Janet Martin

Ps.103:15-18

As for man, his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
16For the wind passes over it, and it is [b]gone,
And its place remembers it no more.
17But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
On those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
18To such as keep His covenant,
And to those who remember His commandments to do them.

Time's Wise, Worthwhile and Most Beautiful Redemption

Ephesians 5:15-16

Pay careful attention, then, 

to how you walk,

 not as unwise but as wise,

redeeming the time, 

because the days are evil.

A wet garden stroll this morning

with coffee and camera in hand 

(naturally 😊)

Larkspur 

Sunflower

rain-bent geranium

Daylily

Hosta

Dipladenia

Petunia

Hollyhock

Honeysuckle

Can there be a wiser way

To redeem time’s hours

Than to spend a summer’s day

Communing with flow’rs

Than for half an afternoon

Stop to smell the roses

Awed at petal-poem boon

Only God composes

Than to gaze at Queen Ann’s lace

Studying its stitches

Than to reverently trace

Detail that bewitches

Than be sweetly stunned to find

Myriad masterpieces

Then, be more worship inclined

As wonder increases

Can there be a better way

To relieve love’s duty

Than to pause, a summer’s day

In God-gardened beauty

Can there be a purer laud

Than in bloom bent bow'r

Than to grasp a glimpse of God

Smiling in each flower 

Sh-h-h! Can you hear wisdom woo

Gloriously granted?

To be like a flower too

And bloom where we're planted 

© Janet Martin

July-High or Season of Sweet Summertime

 Some summer/ July 'highs/highlights'...

Freshly-picked supper!

Yesterday's Lunch!

'Where every flower-dear is fair of face...'

'And every shower-dear a gift from God'

Freshly-popped lily!

And Queen Ann decks herself in finest lace

And Daisy dares with ‘loves-me-loves-me-not’

Living’s unrivaled adrenaline rush

Beauty unbridled in sequence sublime

Colorful cadence of hymns, petal-plush

This is the season of Sweet Summertime

Breeze tousles treetops, stirs leafy-green sighs

Porches are perches for popsicle-snacks

Meadows are churches beneath smiling skies

Earthy pews bid worshippers to relax

Arbors are lavished with vine-woven lace

Gardens are ravished with vegetable-fare

Nothing in summer is quite commonplace

Pity the one who has no time to spare

No time to lie with ear pressed to the throb

In nature’s chest; let it soothe creature care

No time to watch butterfly flit and bob

Or to consider the lilies so fair

Come, let us cater to wanderlust’s lure

Weather the verge of the surge of farewell

Savor the flavor of summer, so pure

Tolling a swansong in each flower-bell

Soak in the silver-soft laughter of life

Cherish its brief afternoon of romance

List to the ballad of roses run rife

While Father Time and Mother Nature (slow)dance

No reason needed, dear, just sit a bit

For none can tether Time to mid-July

All one can do is to revel in it

Linger where bronze wheat fields bend with goodbye

And Queen Ann decks herself in finest lace

And Daisy dares with ‘loves-me-loves-me-not’

Where every flower-dear is fair of face

And every shower-dear a gift from God

Crinoline swish of welkin gowns brush by

Heart skips a beat; reciprocates with rhyme

While happiness soars to new July-high

Here in the season of sweet Summertime

© Janet Martin

While happiness soars to new July-high

Here in the season of sweet Summertime

Care's Counterbalance...Creator's Kindness

Let's pray in these times-like-never-before 

where nations are turning from God like never before

that we who believe commit to seeing, hearing, obeying,

relying on and worshipping Him like never before...

Many are the witnesses of faith we may look to for courage, chiefly Jesus!!

Heb.12:1-2

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

 let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,

 and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

 2looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith,

 who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, 

despising the shame, and has sat down 

at the right hand of the throne of God.

When we delight in the beauty of creation

it is not hard to believe that our Creator God is awesome above all else!!

Isaiah 46:9
Remember the former things of old:

for I am God, and there is none else; 

I am God, and there is none like me,

Sometimes life’s woes could blind us to God’s kindnesses unfurled

To counterbalance creature cares in a care-laden world

He tunes heaven and earth with boons too manifold to count

He woos us to drink deeply from June’s leaf and flower fount

Where once again He clothes the land with garb of seed and bud

In keeping with the covenant, He made after the flood

To manifest His evidence, creation shouts His name

To quench credence to atheism’s cold and calloused claim

He comforts us with colours only His thought can compose

And sweetens Heaven-hunger with reason only He knows

Where each season showcases masterpieces, mercy-lent

Where nothing in this world replaces Goodness, mercy-bent

To well in us, in spite of aches and pangs that sting and press

A worship-bidden, wonder-smitten hymn of happiness

Of reverence and honour to He from Whom blessings pour

To awe and cheer us onward to the joy still set before

...to capture our attention with surprises full of grace

To lavish wounds of learning with fond glimpses of His face 

To never let life blind us to He who is kind and good

Whose invisible qualities are clearly understood

© Janet Martin

Rom.1:20

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—

his eternal power and divine nature—

 have been clearly seen, 

being understood from what has been made, 

so that people are without excuse.

Oh God!!! May I/we never live

 unawed!

February/Winter Flowers

I picked the flower puzzle to do (see quandary here) 

because there's just something about flowers

in winter that can't be beat!!

even the pieces look like a handful of petals tossed on a garden path!

So, let's celebrate the last day of February with winter flowers

even if they are painted on cardboard💖😊

They kindle wild dream-pleasure for gardens not planted yet

They gleam with priceless treasure of fond memories to be

They rouse a youthful yearning in the appetites they whet

For perfumed pinks and purples heady with sweet nectar-tea

And like children with rosy faces, kissed by brisk wind-chill

They bloom a little rosier on winter’s windowsill

They delight hearts with visions of a sunny summer’s day

Where butterflies and laughter flit and flirt with honey bee

They make indoors feel friendlier while winter whiles away

As we stroll perfect gardens in a plot of fantasy

A welcome splash of color on a dolor afternoon

They garnish kitchen tables with a glint of May or June

They cheer us with old fashioned charm and make us humbly glad

To be alive where flowers wait to burst the bud with bloom

As blush and gold menageries drive poets gently mad

With so much beauty to behold from Mother Nature’s loom

Primed with a plethora of plumes no tombs can keep at bay 

Unfolding outdoor living rooms still snuggly tucked away

© Janet Martin

Speaking of outdoor living rooms

I would love to try this come spring!

Baking Lavash Bread on Stone Grill

From Country Life Vlog

 

Dare To Dream But Bear In Mind...

I sat in the garden for a little while this afternoon soaking in the

sights, sounds and smells of fading August...

No longer restless with a dream, but reveling in the bloom!

Dare to dream but bear in mind Dream’s vulnerability

For, it seems life is inclined to vex blind fantasy

Where what we composed in forums with youth still intact

Soon begins to weather foibles and fumbles of fact

Dare to take a leap of faith but be aware of this

Sometimes you will hit the mark! Sometimes you will miss

Sometimes the sweet landing you envision when you jump

Will take you by rude surprise with an uncourtly bump

Dare to hold, hug and embrace but always with this thought

Letting go is juxtaposed with everything we’ve got

Taste today’s sweet laughter; rejoice and be glad because

Everything that is, soon after, becomes what once was

Then the dreamer starts to see what starry eyes once missed

Fantasy will step aside for moments slowly kissed

Where what want composes as youth dons a weathered brow

Becomes about smelling roses blooming here and now

© Janet Martin