Our Greatest Achievement (pride-weak or humility strong)

A quote, retained from my growing up years;

Humility is a hard thing to achieve;

The moment we think we have it we've lost it! 😉

One of my dearest, humbling happiness-es is peering deep

into the delicate perfection of a flower ...

In today's world, happiness,

not holiness seems touted as

our greatest goal/achievement or 'right'!

Pride, not humility is hailed as 'hero'!

It is impossible to be proud and holy!

It is impossible to be proud and truly happy!

Below is Holy Scripture's 'tip' of this topic!

...but as He who called you is holy, 

you also be holy in all your conduct, 

 because it is written,

 “Be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:15-16

Proverbs 29:23

A man's pride will bring him low, 

but a humble spirit will obtain honor.

James 4:6

But he gives us more grace.

That is why Scripture says

: “God opposes the proud 

but shows favor to the humble.”

Prov.6:16-19

These six things the Lord hates,

Yes, seven are an abomination to [a]Him:

A[b] proud look,

A lying tongue,

Hands that shed innocent blood,

A heart that devises wicked plans,

Feet that are swift in running to evil,

A false witness who speaks lies,

And one who sows discord among brethren.

(I've discovered when I do a Bible word search on 'happy'

most often it is translated into 'blessed')

Psalm 40:4

Blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, 

who has not turned to the proud, 

nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

Take Time To Be Holy

We, since Eden's calamity

Have struggled with temptation's bent

The Word, that WAS, IS and WILL BE

No mortal twist can circumvent

We are without excuse because

The Word that WAS, IS and WILL BE

Is steadfast in Love's changeless laws

No Author of confusion, He

Holiness is our highest Call

Not happiness, as some may claim

 Defiant pride precedes the fall

That leads to destruction and shame

The Word that WAS, IS and WILL BE

So many dare to disregard  

As if the cross of Calvary

Was but a charm or a postcard

The way to destruction is broad

Death's dark and downward jaunt seems bright

While the devil who detests God

Masquerades as angel of light

The deceiver is sly and vile

No one is too precious to spare

His mission, seeking to beguile

Those not yet on hell's thoroughfare

God's truth and love will never shift

He is just, trustworthy and kind

When we receive salvation's gift

He opens eyes that once were blind

Then call on Him in humble awe

Before pride makes a mockery

Of He who IS Love's Perfect Law

The Word that WAS, IS and WILL BE

Seek holiness without reserve

The Word that WAS, IS and WILL BE

Waits to reward as we deserve;

Earned through pride or humility

Janet Martin

John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2He was in the beginning with God.

3All things were made through Him,

and without Him nothing was made that was made.

4In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5And the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness did not [a]comprehend it.

Honing Happiness/Holiness

 Here we go, high and low, sun-shadow-shamble...

Twilight's bronze hinges highlight leafy fringes...

Rushes of wonder, hope, heartache and hunger

War in this wisp of God-kissed nope and yes

Depth of resentment and height of contentment

Tip scales of sacrifice or selfishness

Reason and reverence season thought’s thunder

Want’s fingers pliable or tightly-clenched

Grateful or grumbler, where beauty and blunder

Clash; calm and tempest, duty and dream-drenched

Twilight's bronze hinges highlight leafy fringes

Dawn's yellow hello soon yields to dusk's door

Splurge of new falters on merge-of-blue altars

Rise and shine flowers then fades on west-shore

Hark; the dark quiet is shedding its riot

Of stars; mist-bars melt in  gossamer gold

Eluding miser and pilfering pirate 

Happiness trembles where mercies unfold

Planting and reaping and giving and keeping

Fond, fleeting flicker twixt greeting and dirge

Sorrow's bowed weeping and laughter's wowed leaping

Morrow's unknown always on today's verge 

Hurry-up scramble or slow and sweet ramble

Where bloom and bramble delight and distress

Here we go, high and low, sun-shadow-shamble

Grin, grunt and groaning, honing happiness/holiness

© Janet Martin

1 Sam.2:2

“There is no one holy like the Lord;

there is no one besides you;

there is no Rock like our God.

Thank God For Happiness-es

 

One of my 'brood' asked me yesterday if I feel like a happy

Mother Hen when all my chicks are home and I clucked 'yes!'💕💕

The way a heart can overflow with joy only love brings...

No sunset to astonish and draw us to reverent stare...

No stem with floral-garnished, manifolded petal-flare...

or hanging out with tot to find what money cannot buy...

For feather-flurried tweet-tweet-tweet...

Thank God for happiness-es that never lose their appeal

The way creation’s beauty spills each season’s slow reveal

The way the day begins, as darkness thins and heavens free

The quiver of a river that expands into a sea

The way a heart can overflow with joy only love brings

And thrill with rediscovery of wealth in simple things

Like, how a smile lights up a room in a world full of hurt

Like, how a garden makes us feel at home in wholesome dirt

Thank God for thrills that spill profusely from a fount of grace

Imagine if we had to earn each blessing we embrace

How weary we would soon become, how empty arms would be

If all we had was man’s minimal ingenuity

No sunset to astonish and draw us to reverent stare

No stem with floral garnished, manifolded petal-flare

No mercy, new each morning as dawn bathes the misty lea

Only laws without love and judgment without sympathy

Thank God for pretty pleasures like a stroll along a brook

The luxury of cuppa tea and company of book

Or hanging out with tot, to find what money cannot buy

Unbridled happiness in hideouts not even knee high

For feather-flurried tweet-tweet-tweet, gold, scarlet, blue and gray

Where He who tends them said we are of more value than they

Therefore, we should not worry, for He who feeds little birds

Knows our needs and will look after all who trust His words

Thank God for countless reasons to bow down and worship Him

And lift up hearts in grateful praise where happiness-es brim

In hymns from nature’s orchestra, in hymns from heart and soul

Where through the blood of Jesus Christ our faith has made us whole

Thank God for His kind goodness; for the Shepherd’s rod and staff

Where in a world of sorrow we are still able to laugh

Where in a world of trouble Hope anchors all who believe

And thrills us with happiness-es only God can achieve

© Janet Martin

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; 

give thanks to him and praise his name.

Psalm 100:4

Get a Daily Dose of Gladness

PAD Challenge day 10:For today's prompt, take the phrase "Get (blank),"

replace the blank with a word or phrase,

make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

Get your face close to a flower...

Get a book, bev’rage and blanket

Lie beneath blue-sky hurrah...

Get a daily dose of gladness

Let it thrill you thoroughly

It will help dispel the sadness

And the madness that must be

Get your face close to a flower

Inhale heaven’s spilled perfume

Let the wonder of God’s power

Thunder from earth’s petal-loom

Get yourself some sweet spring fever

Face the future with a smile

Winter didn't last forever

Keep the faith though fears beguile

Forget about worry’s maybes

Trust the grace whereby we go

Sing and pray and cuddle babies

Praise God from whom blessings flow

Get a book, bev’rage and blanket

Lie beneath blue-sky hurrah

Let life’s reasons to be thankful

Grant a daily dose of awe

© Janet Martin

Delight and Disappointment's Crown

...the sun rises,

doles out its daily dose of delight...

and disappointment...

then tucks another page of time to the archives..

Delight and disappointment

Compose life’s harmony

Where love’s perfect contentment

Mingles with misery

Where trying could mean flying

Or face-plant in the dirt

Where holding means untying

Those heartstrings where they hurt

Where life is always teaching

More than seen at first glance

Where hope is always reaching

Beyond the circumstance

Perpetual estrangement

Of moments, echo spun

A rose and thorn arrangement

Shadows cast by the sun

A bittersweet concoction

Of dazzling dreams and shards

A motley interaction

With brutes, beggars and bards

Where prayer is never nothing

So prayer, dear comrade, pray

For there is always something

To learn along the way

Delight and disappointment

Seem to go hand in hand

One thrills us with enjoyment

One tests creature demand

But somehow as we weather

Dismay and happiness

The two of them together

Crown us with thankfulness

© Janet Martin

The First Step Toward Happiness

 PAD Challenge Day 5:

For today's prompt, take the phrase "The First (blank),"

replace the blank with a word or phrase, 

make the new phrase the title of your poem, 

and then, write your poem.

The first step toward happiness is, Love the Lord, Your God

The second follows on its heels with cup of coffee laud

and tea parties with friends and neighbours!!! 

Oops, until reason's rhyme

Decided get-togethers 

was akin to deadly crime

(but getting high on cannabis is A-okay as long

as there's six-feet of outdoor space 

between what's right and wrong) 

okay, let's start over, I got a bit off track, sigh...

The first step toward happiness is, 'do not hold a grudge'

The second follows on its heels with 'let God be the Judge'

(But never mind His Word designed to have the final say

That will not fade even when heavens and earth pass away)

Oh dear! One more try!!!

The first step toward happiness is, to put on a smile

The next is not a second step but rather, second mile

For when we help our fellowman we find, to our surprise

That loving one another is where true happiness lies!

© Janet Martin

Yes!! That's what I was trying for!

Thank-you😘

Grand-sonny puts on the BEST smiles...

His sister is a bit more camera-shy

February's Gardens

 

We are continuously wowed with wonderful sunrises this winter!

as God 'breaks the bud of night with heaven’s hardy, hearty Majesty'

See! February’s gardens beam from dirt where dream-seeds start to stir 

To fill the scope of hope renewed with visions of spring and summer 

To touch the page of pictures pressed to winter’s laughing aftermath 

Where sunbeams dance and bare feet prance upon earth’s posy-pulsing path 

Look! February’s gardens bloom as spent plumes bedeck pristine halls 

To steal the eye a second time with tinsel soft as cotton balls 

To burst the hub of happiness into smile-storms from heart to ears 

Where nature spreads Her empty arms and gathers Old Man Winter’s tears 

Ah! February’s gardens brim from sunny south-faced window-sills 

To fill sweet home with friendly hints of field and fallow-harboured thrills 

To wake in weary winter-worlds a sudden, sacred sense of He 

Who breaks the bud of night with heaven’s hardy, hearty Majesty 

Come! February’s gardens brood and throb beneath heath, snow-veneered 

Where frigid noon will soon drip like ice-cream from Old Man Winter’s beard 

And hands a little softer now, not pushing plows of plant and reap 

Will be filled with forget-me-nots and other 'tots' roused from their sleep 

© Janet Martin 

ah! February's gardens brim from sunny, south-faced windowsills...

(my NOT very green thumb embarrasses houseplants...poor things!)

but they bring me sweet pleasure, all the same😊

 Jeri Landers from Hop-along Hollow got my garden-fingers itching with yesterday's video, 

but alas, in Ontario we are still bundled in blankets/banquets/bank-ets of white

Jeri Lander's Winter-sowing/Gardener's Hot Lunch/name the new duck

On Finding Fulfillment

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, 

as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 

 since you know that you will receive an inheritance 

from the Lord as a reward. 

It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 

Col.3: 23-24

It's not as much what we are doing

as who we are doing it for

that brings contentment/fulfillment

So it begs the question;

What are we doing for Who?

This gal is working at next Christmas's wish-list...

(only 11 mos. less a day to go!!😊😉)

We all have wish-lists, don't we?!

How far are we willing to go for who?

The ladder to success and happiness 

Is foiled by flaws and failures of the flesh 

Enmeshed in plans and dreams so dearly plied 

Is a force to be reckoned with, called pride 

And no matter how high our hopes might climb 

Or where our dreams may lead if given time 

The chase that we embrace is not enough 

To fill that place God reserved for His Love... 

…to love Him with heart, soul and strength and mind 

So few it seems, life truest success find 

For He does not cater to wish and whim 

The Creator made us to honor Him 

And so, until we do the heart will cry 

And nothing will fulfill or satisfy 

This world will seem a feckless trek to death 

Until we learn to rev’rence ev’ry breath 

And recognize life’s sacred gift from He 

Who lends its lease of brief mortality 

Where we will find fulfillment only when 

We labour for the Lord and not for men

Sooner or later everyone must choose

Who they will serve and thus, who they refuse

If we choose God then all we do will be

An expression of awed humility 

© Janet Martin 

Unplumbed Happiness

Life is too short not to cavort 

With friendly sorts, like trees and skies 

The long way home is like a poem 

Whisp'ring in nature’s paradise 

How good to sit and chat a bit 

With friends that flit with twitt’ring laud 

Who do not bear tomorrow’s care 

But leave its Wherefore up to God 

Time flies and soon the afternoon 

Is like a tune we used to know 

So, we should pause sometimes because 

The gauze of moments steals the show 

Don’t wait too long to learn the song 

That wafts upon the lofty breeze 

And softly blends the way that wends 

Through what time lends, to memories 

The wonder-strands from wander-lands 

Of grandiose 'hands-off' finesse

Softly become the glorious sum

Of perfect, unplumbed happiness

© Janet Martin 

This is the lure I couldn't resist...

before it darkened

 

Book-Shopping

I keep creating a delightful dilemma;

running out of room for books!

Books are becoming the décor of necessity!😀

 

And any neat and tidy bookcases are constantly be messed! 

Isn't that great?!!😊

Is this then 

Ink-toxication? 

I wonder, what else could it be 

The slur of the ditty 

Makes me rather giddy 

Not as sedate as I should be 

Are these yellow pages 

Imbibed with the ages 

Somehow playing tricks on my brain 

This spell I am under 

Is it real, I wonder 

This feeling is hard to explain 

My logic is muddled 

Will-power befuddled 

I don’t feel at all like myself 

I'm hypnotized, I confess  

By ink-induced happiness 

Lining shelf after shelf after shelf 

Those enticing hard covers

Are like starry-eyed lovers

All calling out, pick me, pick me

Oh, tell me, how do

I choose only one or two

Inhale, exhale, I'll take twenty-three

© Janet Martin 

Happiness Is Full Of Holes

Oh the irony; the Bloom that blesses 

with greatest happiness-es

Is the selfsame Sheaf

cradling our deepest grief!

Cherish the bloom...

Still a few tenacious blooms hoisting their pretty plumes💕

No precious posy is overlooked as we are poised on the brink of November!

Happiness seems to grow dearer 

As the days to years increase 

Where it seems joy’s perfect picture 

Is often missing a piece 

Missing faces and caresses 

From those too far off to reach 

Realizing happiness-es 

Are like waves that wash the beach 

Rush of pure and sweet enchantments 

Swirls and eddies; tender taunt 

Runs life rife with disappointments 

We did not expect or want 

Takes away a much-loved someone 

Leaves a teardrop in their stead 

Teaching us to cherish moments 

Weaving a gossamer thread 

…full of twists and tears and creases 

That no fingers can secure 

And though it is missing pieces 

Happiness can still endure 

For with loss comes the awak’ning 

To the other side of joy 

And the sacred undertaking 

Of the moments we employ 

Futile to unravel echoes 

Where time’s sparkle-skein unfolds 

Better to embrace the present 

And the happiness it holds 

Happiness, life's sweet Comforter

How its wonder warms our souls

Happiness, we soon discover

Is a blanket full of holes

© Janet Martin 

There Is No Denying This Genesis of Joy

“The world will never starve for want of wonders; 

but only for want of wonder.”

― G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

A  child's joy is so pure!

There is no denying this; Children’s laughter, chatter, kiss 

Reminds us that happiness is not a complicated quest 

Fortune is not found in things; angels are not white with wings 

We can all feel rich as kings if we recognize life’s best 

Wonder is want satisfied; a relinquishing of pride 

As we set ourselves aside, caught off-guard by awe unchecked 

For there’s no denying this; He who authors wonder’s bliss 

Thus orchestrates the genesis of joy without defect 

Want is always on the hunt; at the mercy of the brunt 

Of discontentment’s blunt and insatiable emptiness 

There is no denying this; what a wonder, Wonder IS 

As a glimpse of God surprises us with happiness 

© Janet Martin 

Inexorable Entitlements...

The bitter and the sweet compete; oh, why must it be so

To hold is to suffer love’s precious pangs of letting go

Today is always placed over echoes and weathered treads

And joy is always interlaced with sorrow’s tender threads

To recognize and prize the highs we must undergo lows

And brace ourselves, where fond goodbyes follow happy hellos

The good against the ill is always finely juxtaposed

And oft night’s soft silences spill with what day’s noise composed 

The flower is the preface to shower of petals felled

The present is always the place where past and future meld

The flight to getting older soldered to laughter and tears

Regret's gut-wrenching gutters and triumph's capstone of cheers

The loveliness and ugliness of bare matters of fact

Kindles heartache and happiness; both never left intact

Where the longer we live the less it seems we truly know

And all we keep is what we give; oh, why must it be so

© Janet Martin