Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Never Too Young (or old) To Learn

Sweetheart helping/learning to make butter tarts!




I generally am treated to 100% sweetness by this little gal
but 'rumor' has it there's another side that sometimes isn't quite so!😂😅🙏


Sometimes, when 'training up' children, an extra-firm hand is required;
A hand that let's them know that no tantrum will change the expectation for obedience!
It is vital that a child learns as early as able, 
to recognize and respect/obey authority!




Sometimes, we as God's children need that firm Hand too.
How easily we (like children) are prone to ignore 
and disrespect/disobey His Supreme Authority!
We, like little children, can be as sweet as pie (or butter tarts) when all goes well!
But what about those other times, when wills clash?!

Romans 6:16
Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, 
you are slaves to the one you obey, 
whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, 
or to obedience leading to righteousness?



The quest to please ourselves, it seems, comes very naturally
Rousing a wrestling match between Self and authority
We are not born to want to yield to edicts not our own
The master of our lives revealed by what our deeds make known

The quest to please ourselves is something that is never taught
Human nature is always king over empires of thought
The living proof of love’s touchstone demonstrates without fail
Who resides on the heart’s veiled throne; choice, its own tattle-tale

The quest to please ourselves is not uncommon or bizarre
Until we yield our will to God, love is a tug-of-war
Until we love Him first, we will not find true joy because
The quest to please ourselves is cursed with the worst part of us (sin)

We all have faced the giant in the valley of love tried
We all have been defiant, self-reliant, blind with pride
But, pray, we all have borne the blow that brought us to our knees
And slew the masquerading foe, impossible to please

And pray our quests have been condensed till only One prevails
Treasured with humble confidence/reverence in God who never fails
And pray that when we are beguiled to prize some lesser goal
He reminds us, we are His child; the Saviour of the Soul

© Janet Martin


Eph.3:20-21
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly 
above all that we ask or think,
 according to the power that works in us, 
 to Him be glory in the church 
by Christ Jesus to all generations,
 forever and ever. 
Amen.

so, here's to that universal classroom of
'never too old to learn' or to forgive, or repent,
and confess our sins and try-try-again!

Below, an inspiring excerpt from the life story of
George Mueller of Bristow...



Thursday, January 18, 2024

Of Learning Curves and Growing Pains

'Live and learn' has become 
an oft-repeated mantra in my life!
Fumbles and stumbles to teach me
what I thought I already knew/learned...
On the bright side, it keeps life from becoming predictable, doesn't it?!
And often reminds us of the loving-kindness and patience of God!

On the cusp of Dusk-dimmed vistas waits a whole new ‘live and learn’...





Due to the lack of sunshine in the past month in southern Ontario,
when it suddenly made a late-day appearance
I couldn't resist putting supper-prep on pause and dashing out to the fields
behind my neighbor's barn!
Sub-zero temps made recording challenging because I couldn't be without mittens
for more than 30 seconds! But the chill added to the exhilaration!!


No one is like you, Lord;
you are great,
and your name is mighty in power.

Then, just like that it's morning once more...
a gray one, dappled with colorful birds...(pics below)

Daylight drives afar the darkness of the heavens; mercy reigns
Once again, we face the grace of learning curves and growing pains
For Time never fully severs us from ties of ‘no return’
On the cusp of Dusk-dimmed vistas waits a whole new ‘live and learn’

Soft, dawn’s lofty lintels flower, filling bowers with Today
Pray God’s armor thwarts the charmer bent on luring us astray
Pray the fight twixt wrong and right draws us to He whose love/truth sustains
He who knows the highs and lows of learning curves and growing pains

No matter how high on ladders of success, Faith plants its prayer
Always still, another hill to climb, another hurt/cross to bear
Sudden swerve on Learning’s Curve, or fresh onslaught of Growing’s pain
And Day’s Light to pierce night’s Darkness and God’s mercy, new again

© Janet Martin

So, here's to a new day of living and learning 
to be kinder, humbler, holier, not on our own
but through Christ in us!

Ephesians 3:16
I ask that out of the riches of His glory 
He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength

and as mentioned, bird pics!








Friday, November 24, 2023

Love and Learning's Celebration


Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Today is like an invitation to 
so much joy still left to taste
because joy is unlike most delights we seize 
and devour and then,
 they disappear!



One of my most dearly loved chapters was part of today's bible-in-a-year reading!

Though you have not seen him, you love him; 
and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him 
and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,...

1 Pet. 1:21
Through him you believe in God, 
who raised him from the dead and glorified him,
 and so your faith and hope are in God.


In this life of love and learning
Rife with delight and dismay
May the Maker of each morning
Kindle gladness for today

May the Harbinger of Heaven
Fill our days with holy worth
For to know we are forgiven
Is the greatest joy on earth

Today unfolds like a flower
Hour-petals fade and fall
Unlike delights we devour
Joy transcends the tangible

Unlike moments softly drifting
Like snowflakes that melt away
God instills dawn’s daily gifting
With joy hinged to Endless Day

We know there is no returning
To estrangement’s yester-place
Today is for love, and learning
Fresh arrangements of God’s grace

Dawn is like an invitation
To what we ought never waste
Love and learning’s celebration
Of so much joy still to taste

© Janet Martin

1 Pet. 1:3-7
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! 
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope
 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. 
This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded
 by God’s power until the coming of the salvation 
that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 
6 In all this you greatly rejoice, 
though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 
7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—
of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—
may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

I love old books by or about pastors that share wisdom and humor
forged from fellowship and challenges of family and flock!
such as the book I am reading right now...


saying no to a 'money-career' offer, after devastating loss of a hurricane



to a disillusioned doctor who was trying to wash/swim
 his troubles away in the ocean every morning...


to a young girl going down a bad way...




Thursday, January 26, 2023

It's Not Easy But It Is Possible


This winter I have committed to sorting through
a lot of long-neglected corners and drawers filled with paraphernalia and plunder
of collections no longer relevant to the season I am in...Older mother!
And while mothering is by no means over, preschool and school children mothering is!
Leaving a lot of hard decisions to be made like
how many old art projects, canvases, folders, sketch-books, keepsakes do I keep?!!


My oldest daughter is at the other end of the spectrum, at the beginning of this journey
 and sometimes the only way I know how to advise her on
how to navigate a situation is because 
though the circumstances may differ the solution is the same for her season as mine;
 Ask God for wisdom then trust Him to provide!
Often wisdom comes through what feels like failure first.
But the important thing is that we don't give up!!
 Keep trying/praying! 



It’s not easy, learning how to fully lean on God to guide
How to trust Him without fretting about if/what He will provide
It’s not easy learning how to yield and say ‘Thy will, not mine’
And to rest in Him untroubled by His unrevealed design
It’s not easy, learning how to sacrifice each selfish choice
Taking God’s Word at His promises without doubt’s vexing voice
It’s not easy to be holy; we need God’s word in our hearts
To undo sin’s dark dominion and to thwart the tempter’s darts
It’s not easy to be faithful if we look ahead too far
But God makes it possible if we trust Him
Right
Where
We
Are

It's not easy, the relying on strength we do not possess 
But as long as we keep trying God unveils His promises 

© Janet Martin

Prov.3:3-8, 33-35

Let not mercy and truth forsake you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart,
4And so find favor and [a]high esteem
In the sight of God and man.

5Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall [b]direct your paths.

7Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
8It will be health to your [c]flesh,
And strength[d] to your bones....

...The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked,
But He blesses the home of the just.
34Surely He scorns the scornful,
But gives grace to the humble.
35The wise shall inherit glory,
But shame shall be the legacy of fools.

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Of Unrelenting Mystery


I'm SO excited to share the link to my friend's
 (and long ago next-door neighbor's) latest venture;
one she has been in training for in a sense, almost her whole life!
Check it out!

As I read about her journey to this point
it reminded me to remember no matter what season we are in,
when dreams seem stagnant in streams
 of Commonplace Commitments
or mundane musts 
or dire detours teaching trust,
God is always prepping the soil or
pruning the plant,
for the dream/hope to flourish and flower in
His perfect Timing.
Does it not make us all take heart exactly where we are,
 if but to simply pray,
'God, help me shine and grow for You today?'!
(where the Unrelenting Mystery of tomorrow waits...)


Wherever we are called to be
Whatever we are called to do
We have one charge, ultimately
To be a vessel God shines through

The highs and lows of day-to-day
Serve purposes we cannot guess
While we are learning to obey
And trust God’s faithful promises

Experience is not in vain
How often we are blindly blessed
While wisdom we have yet to gain
Is veiled in the pain of the test

The Here-and-Now that we are in
Is but a steppingstone whereby
We advance, always to begin
So much more than yet meets the eye

Petal by petal, buds unfold
Where masterpieces wait to spill
Like we, cradled in the kind hold
Of God’s perfect timing and will

What sacred common ground we share
Of Unrelenting Mystery
For who knows what waits to prepare
Us for what is waiting to be 

© Janet Martin


1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,
 do it all to the glory of God.








Thursday, December 8, 2022

Book of Now or Where No Today is Commonplace (because of God's grace)


Now is a sequence of little love-letters
unfolding and folding in sacred synchronicity!


My granddaughter's grin yesterday as her mommy surprised her
 with an unexpected visit (aka break for momma) to gramma's house

This morning's poem was penned amidst much Now unfolding, such as
a frustrated and discouraged daughter asking for prayers 
for wisdom and patience as she parents, 
especially a three year old daughter whose endless curiosity and energy
 results in the most unpredictable episodes.
Yesterday said grand daughter watched ever-so-closely as gramma put in her contact lenses. 
This morning while her mommy was busy with baby brother 
she decided to try to clean mommy's contacts!! 
Last week after her mommy glazed some meatloaf for supper, and
was helping Big Brother with some reading,
this opened a window of opportunity
to slather leftover glaze on the stove burner!
Other recent episodes, often harmless but patience trying...
let's see how much toilet paper fits in a drain.
let's get out all my summer clothes because the snow melted!!!
let's use mom's real taco -seasoning in my toy kitchen while I'm cooking!
(and this gal moves faster than the Tasmanian devil in the old bugs bunny cartoons😂😂)
These episodes are most often followed with a very penitent little girl saying
 "I'm thorry, mommy for'...
and then its hard for mommy to stay cross for very long after😅💓

Dear mommies and daddies, don't give up.
After prayer-folded hands, a loving and firm hand 
is the best thing you can give your children!
(Dear older moms and dads, 
let's remember to pray faithfully for younger parents!
because, do you remember the unrelenting challenge 
of parenting little children?!!)
Let's pray they may have the wisdom, the patience
 and the courage to do the hard parenting!

Every stage of Now, no matter how old we are 
seems to run rife with life's challenges/lessons!
By God's goodness and mercy aka grace, we go...


Lessons learned through laughter and tears
Tune tides soon turned to yesteryears
How swift sterling sunrises set
The stage unfurling folds of ‘yet’
Where gold and gray-spun Granting sweeps
Each new today to Bygone’s deeps
With Now, the ink that pulses through
What first we think and then we do
Until we ford that final rift
To meet the Lord who gave life’s gift
Where time’s tatters of touching lie
In stilled splatters where ink drops dry

…in a love letter God will read
Prompting us to pay better heed
To what deed writes before we bow
And God recites our Book of Now
…where, pray above all He will see
The acquittal of Calvary
That began, with Now’s earnest try
Eternity’s thank-you reply
Where no today is commonplace
In hope’s hooray, because of grace
As step by step and prayer by prayer
God folds away time’s sacred stair

© Janet Martin


some 'nows' are as sweet as maple cream fudge, (see recipe below)
being sampled here...

others, not!



(Above, Miss Mischief's Baby Brother who seems to take up a LOT of mommy-time💞💗)

Here is an annual Christmas treat favourite from my childhood;
Maple Cream Fudge recipe...



Proverbs 19:20
Listen to counsel and accept discipline,
 that you may be wise the rest of your days.

Monday, November 7, 2022

Compilation of Adaptation



Nov. .PAD Challenge Day 7. For today's prompt, write an adaptation poem.
(This challenge completely slipped my mind this year, until this weekend!)

Happy Monday!
Here's to another page in life's compilation of adaptation,
(a work in constant progress)
We live in a world of whether-change!
Some whethers are like warm and friendly hosts,
others like unwelcome guests!
Forge on, my friend, by the grace of God
He crowns the broken with His beauty!
(like last night's sunset!)






To days gone by none can return
Nor ask for a preview
Of adaptations yet to learn
Where days to years run through

...a flue of love and life run rife
With hellos and goodbyes
No fitting rooms to choose its strife
Or try it on for size

...where it has always been like this
As days to years run through
We learn to adapt to what is
What more, pray, can we do?

...but make the best of what we hold
Lest, in lament we miss
The treasure made of moment-gold
The pleasure in the kiss

The melody twixt Yet and Was
Of holding and release
As Adaptations of Because
Create a masterpiece

While a medley of revisions
With days to years comprise
Adaptation's compilations
Of growing old and wise

The vanity of This and That
Soon slip-slip-slips away
Yet always a fresh welcome mat
Meets us at break of day

..and bids us up and onward through
Adaptation's bequest
While softly days to years undo
The buttons on Soul's vest

With fingers deft and dogged, oh
And whispers that beguile
Beseeching farewells with hello
And teaching tears to smile

Janet Martin
 

Bless the LORD, O my soul!

O LORD my God, You are very great;

You are clothed with splendor and majesty.

2He wraps Himself in light as with a garment;

He stretches out the heavens like a tent,

3laying the beams of His chambers

in the waters above,

making the clouds His chariot,

walking on the wings of the wind...

Psalm 104:1-3












Thursday, September 15, 2022

Still Learning...(or, Hard-fought Gratefulness)


Happy Half-way though September!
We easily see the halfway mark of a month...
not so with a life!
But one thing is certain for we plowing through forties, fifties and beyond,
barring the exception, we have well surpassed the halfway point of our lives!
Wow! How much I don't know that my younger self thought by now I would!!

'Live and learn' has become my middle-age mantra.
Still so much to learn!



I was going to post this poem this morning after the first stanza
then I felt a little niggle, like another stanza jiggling the door knob,
so I opened it...
The door turned out to be a floodgate...of things still being learned!😅


Still learning to give holy thanks, to think before I speak
To seek and prize the lowly ranks of ‘blessed are the meek’
To cling less fiercely to the string of Things and Plans unfurled
To make the shadow of God’s wings, my refuge in this world
To lay up treasure where no vice corrupts, mars or defiles
To weigh the payoff, not the price of walking ‘second miles’
To not rebel beneath the ‘nope’ of mercy’s faultless rod
But, to anchor my hope in steadfast promises from God
To keep the faith, not disillusioned by what blurs my view
As breath by breath, death closes in, till ‘still learning’ is through

To count my blessings, not life’s lack, to make the most of now
Before tomorrow’s looking back beholds its rendered How
To trust the Love that withholds wants and wishes for my good Best
To teach me how to better bow without proud, loud protest
To stun me with the goodness of His all-sufficient grace
As wonder over wonder floods the would-be commonplace
To satisfy my longing with the whisper of His Name
He helps me press toward the mark until faith’s prize I claim
…to cast before His throne, the honor of crown upon crowns
To hail our Heavenly Father faithful through life’s ups and downs

To yield, with all my heart, not just a small part, now and then
To know that He is able and changeless for aye, amen
To commit to His keeping all I do not understand
To fit my doubting fingers through the nail-holes in His Hand
To place my cares, prayer upon prayers into ‘Thy will be done’
To put on God’s whole armor to withstand the evil one
To ask Him to set a watch over the door of my lips
Because, oh Lord, how easily the unbridled tongue slips
Still learning how to listen, to be slow to anger, oh
Still learning to keep turning to the One who loves me so

Still learning to linger in Time’s showcase of majesty
Where fringes of God’s glory overflow sky, sod and sea
Where EL OLAM, Eternal God, thought cannot comprehend
The rock of my salvation and my nearest, dearest friend
Still learning to be awed by God’s resolute holiness
Still learning to be patient when His answer is not ‘yes’
Still learning to remember what I ought not to forget
Still learning how to follow the example Jesus set
And how to keep my balance on the beam of consequence
While I harvest the bitter fruit of disobedience

Still learning to esteem and redeem precious, numbered days
While learning to keep leaning on God’s very patient ways
Still learning to depend upon His Word that will not fail
(Sometimes I share a chuckle with the mirror’s telling tale)
Glad for a sense of humor while I weather what I must
Bearing in mind what will survive this grind of dust to dust
While learning through mistakes I wish I would know nothing of
The tender pangs and aches of highs and lows that come with love
And learning, while still learning not to miss the measure earned
Of triumph’s hard-fought gratefulness for truths and lessons learned

© Janet Martin


How precious is Your loving devotion, O God, 
that the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings!

O LORD, do not withhold Your mercy from me; 
Your loving devotion and faithfulness will always guard me.




Monday, September 5, 2022

Life; a Rollercoaster Poster

Happy Labour Day!
(Here's hoping mine will soon taste like tomato soup, salsa etc.! )


For this Labour Day I chose these two passages below to remind us to
serve with gladness while letting patience have its perfect work!
SO much easier said than done!!

Psalm 100:2
Make a joyful shout to the Lord, [a]all you lands!
2Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
3Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and [b]not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.

James1:4
... let patience have its perfect work,
that you may be [b]perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Oh! The labor pains of patience
before we are perfectly complete and lacking nothing🙏😥💔🙏

Jim's patience is being tested right out of the gates this week!
His high hopes for Happy Labour Day 
 have already taken a plunge; truck troubles
changing 'early start' to 'turn back' !! 😓

If life had to be portrayed with one image 
it would have to be a roller-coaster, right?!
(an image used in yesterday morning's message at WBC)
We can go from being on top of the world to a spiraling plunge in an instant!
and SO many unexpected twists, turns and tunnels!
Aren't you thankful God is steadfast, changeless and faithful no matter what?!




The ups and downs and smiles and frowns of love and life persist
The ebb and flow of boon and blow and high and low repeat
The perfect work of patience lurks at every turn and twist
To teach us how to reach and bow and ‘wash each other’s feet’

Where faith and fear, laughter and tears, dismay and cheers conflict
Where serving God with humble laud makes every task esteemed
Where thick and thin of loss and win and groan and grin’s edict
In due time earns wisdom’s returns in ways we never dreamed

The fruit of toil and root of spoil in close proximity
Tests vim and verve and who we serve; The Apple of our eye
With age-old art reveals the heart with startling clarity
No trick or fence thwarts consequence; no truth can ever lie

Hope and defeat clash and compete; bittersweet battleground
Love’s push and pull not beautiful when felled in broken dreams
Where faith refined appears unkind, where bold doubters abound
Where ‘to serve God with gladness’ is madness to most, it seems

Where ups and downs and smiles and frowns of love and life repeat
Where ebb and flow of boon and blow and highs and lows persist
To teach us how to reach and bow and ‘wash each other’s feet’
The perfect work of patience holds refined gold in its fist

Do not despair; the work of prayer is oft invisible
While we who see in part and He who sees the heart entreat  
Until the awesome consummation of Love's Miracle 
So brutally refined, bows heart, soul and mind at God's feet 

© Janet Martin







Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Of Wizened Ways...and Innocence

 

"I love it!' squealed the Little One
as she delighted in our weedy, flowery lawn...


...where, pray we never get too 'wise'
To see the world through little eyes
Or ever get too old to reach
For lessons only children teach...



We rise and take our place once more
Where morning breaks and seasons pour
The ink of poetry and such
Before our eyes, beneath our touch

…to steal our breath and test faith’s ‘yes’
Of heartache riddled happiness
Where 'nothing new under the sun'
Vexes a new generation

…and stuns us with the wizened way
Of whispers weaving yesterday
Of cares and prayers oft intertwined
Of ultimatums, God-designed

…where, by the granting of His grace
In the crook of mercy’s embrace
We take our place to do our bit
To honor the Giver of it

…where morning breaks through darksome bars
And rends night’s noose dazzled with stars
The heavens like a bud that spills
A garden above fields and hills

…where innocence and Wizened Way
Compose a baffling interplay
Where roles of teacher-student switch
Until we don’t know which is which

...where, pray we never get too 'wise/wizened'
To see the world through little eyes
Or ever get too old to reach
For lessons only children teach  


© Janet Martin

a little like a bud that spills...



a garden above fields and hills...



Psalm 100:2-5

Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.