Showing posts with label others. Show all posts
Showing posts with label others. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

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

Monday, August 12, 2019

Happiness Worth Living





Oh God, what hidden splendour
Presses against the gates
Where in buds of surrender
Full bloom of blessing waits

The heart is like a bower
That cannot bloom until
We submit to the Power
Of the Creator’s will

Then when Heart yields its hardness
The bud begins to brim
Unfolding from the darkness
The glorious Light of Him

Where what we thought we wanted
Falls like a withered leaf
After the seed God planted
(or, after the will God granted)
Surrenders to its Chief

…and finds within love’s giving
Life’s beauty, sweet and kind
Where happiness worth living
Keeps others first in mind

© Janet Martin

 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, 
I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.
 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, 
and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, 
but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, 
  but have not love, I gain nothing. 
1 Cor.13:1-3



Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, 
but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.
Each of you should look not only to your own interests,
 but also to the interests of others. 
Phil. 2:3-4 

I know I shared this song recently but in my own life /love
it bears replaying/repeating!



Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Power Struggle to Joy





My head and heart know the perfect order
Of how things ought to be done
But oh, it seems my hands and feet
Bear a stubborn will all their own

© Janet Martin

When I was a child we learned this jingle to the tune of Jingle Bells;
J-O-Y, J-O-Y
J-O-Y must be
Jesus first and yourself last
and others in between (repeat)

It's message still whispers to me...often.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Of Interests and Others...






Do you like to be encouraged?
Encourage others

Do you like to be appreciated?
Appreciate others

Do you like to be needed?
Need others

Do you like to be praised?
Praise others

Do you like to be smiled to?
Smile to others

Do you like to be missed?
Miss others

Do you like to be ‘heard’?
‘Hear’ others

Do you like to be loved?
Love others

Because
In the end
Others
Are much
Like
Ourselves

© Janet Martin