Guarding Against Ungratefulness

Hebrews 13:15 

 Therefore by Him let us continually 

offer the sacrifice of praise to God,

 that is, the fruit of our lips,

 [a]giving thanks to His name.

I am so thankful to a friend who called me yesterday

to make sure I didn't miss the stunning rainbow!

I would have too, because I was * busy making lunch for 

my daughter and grandchildren. (a no-school day celebration)

The children's exclamations of delight filled the air as we gazed.

The rainbow was followed by a few hours of brilliant sunshine

 to cheer our sun-starved spirits!

"it's easy to be grateful in moments like this" I contemplated.

"Why is it so easy to slip into ungratefulness when things aren't so much to our liking?!"

Ungratefulness is like a heavy foot upon the soul

It blinds us to a showcase where God’s works of wonder toll...

***

Ungratefulness can make us miss blessings that God designed

To keep us humbly glad when we were otherwise inclined

Ungratefulness is like a heavy foot upon the soul

It blinds us to a showcase where God’s works of wonder toll

And causes discontentment because we forget the One

Who ought to awe us constantly with all that He has done

Ungratefulness produces bitter fruit, its song and dance

A fickle happiness tickled by pleasing circumstance

Destined to shift and try delight with less appealing bent

Ungratefulness forgets the gift as soon as it is spent

And scowls and vents and kicks against the pricks of trying test

As if we were deserving of only The Very Best

Ungratefulness is often apt to fix on the façade

It tramples on a flower while shaking a fist at God

It cusses and complains, where hymns of thanksgiving should be

It robs us of the joy that God prepared for you and me

And warps, with wishful thinking, the wellspring that He designed

To keep us humbly glad when we were otherwise inclined

© Janet Martin

Give Thanks

Another easy-gratefulness moment!

I missed taking a photo a few minutes earlier when Eager Helper tripped on the stairs

as he was bringing leftover Christmas cookies up from the downstairs freezer,

and the box dropped sending ziplocked bags of cookies for a tumble!

After being comforted, smiles returned!

Sometimes that's when gratefulness is even sweeter, right?!

After disappointment's tears are dried!

Because life is bound to bring devastating disappointment!

One pic of what turned into 

Classic Minestrone Soup! Yummy!

How The Plump Dove Fluffs Its Feathers (among a few other observations)

Happy, happy halfway through January 2024!!

Ps.145:9-10

The Lord is good to all; 

 he has compassion on all he has made.

All your works praise you, Lord;

your faithful people extol you.

How the plump dove fluffs its feathers with no need for looking glass...

How, if we look, we find much to be tenderly thankful for

How a good book adds a touch of passion to commonplace chore...

(more about below book Here: Homemaker's Prayer)

How a cup of tea is like a gentle, pick-me-upper hug...

How snow-stenciled scenery always gives my heartstring a tug...

How the plump dove fluffs its feathers with no need for looking glass

How love’s sentimental tether binds the present to the past

How spring, summer, fall and winter, Beauty cheers thought’s countenance

And how prayer’s flight is unhindered by season or circumstance

How we are awed, sweetly speechless by Nature’s Grand Orchestra

How God teaches and beseeches mortal worship through its law

How the creature is no match for the Creator; never was

Never will be; He is greater and deserves endless applause

How the measure of God’s pleasure steals the show without contest

How each new day grants the treasure of a fresh and untried quest

How laughter’s melodic mettle fills the air with seraphim

How the song of the tea kettle is my favorite kitchen hymn

How, if we look, we find much to be tenderly thankful for

How a good book adds a touch of passion to commonplace chore

How a cup of tea is like a gentle, pick-me-upper hug

How snow-stenciled scenery always gives my heartstring a tug

How in spite of so much sadness, gladness survives trouble’s gall

How, despite shape, height or status love is still One-size-fits-all

How a morning always rouses what has never been before

Mercy’s renewed summons wows us with God’s faithfulness once more

How, the howl of younger hunger slowly but surely succumbs

To a wizened, humbler wonder satisfied to savor crumbs

How at last we learn the secret to happiness, fit for kings

Not in gimme-gimme-reaches, but in joy of simple things

How, through loss we gain awareness of phrases like you-and-me

Cherishing the fragile rareness of fine words like ‘us’ and ‘we’

How, here we are cradled briefly between two eternities

One, that concerns the Soul chiefly, one of Bygone centuries

How an almost-poem’s tempo keens the poet’s appetite

How ink-swirls compose mementos of rhythm and rhymed delight

How the Bard, kindly encumbered with God’s charge to dredge blurred deeps

Probes the place where Ballad slumbers or Elusive Poem sleeps

How the Finesse of Forever wakes us to the wealth of Now

How the howling gale of winter makes home palatial, somehow

How we chuckle while the weather throws tantrums that never last

How the plump dove fluffs its feathers ready to face one more blast

© Janet Martin

(Below, the cardinal and Blue Jay pics are from my mother-in-law's house yesterday)

How spring, summer, fall and winter, Beauty cheers thought’s countenance...

Bird-watching bliss these days as the cold temps 

and snowy weather brings a feeding frenzy!

Homemaker's Prayer

Last night I started reading this book.

 (lent to me by a friend who knew I would love it, and I do!)

I fell in love with it from the first paragraph (pictured below)! 

reflections on the value of home, 

timeless good advice for homemakers,

 prayers, stories and recipes

connected to the stories!

In the first chapter, (written in the '60's) she is contemplating the 

increasing breakdown of homes,  the foundation of strong nations!

Even more relevant now! 

Lord, help me to make home a haven of kindness and grace

For nothing else in all the world can take home-sweet-home’s place

Then fit me with Thy joy and strength, fill every task I do

With thankfulness and love, so above all, I honour You

Lord, help me guard the heart of home with fierce, yet tender care

Lest some ruinous habit leaves it in sad disrepair

Keep me aware of what may harm or wreck its shielding wing

For the heart of the home is like a living, breathing Thing

… And never let the barb of discontentment tear a hole

Into the fabric that ought to protect, cheer and console

Lord, when my home begins to feel like a fragile, chipped cup

Still, let no failure foster the temptation to give up

Lord, teach me with humility to tend with mother’s pride

To details that kindle a glow that reaches far and wide

So that, no matter how far from its happy hearth we roam

The flicker of love’s Candlelight instills a sense of home

…and always draws us gladly back to where we long to be

To nourish us with home-sweet-home’s familiarity

Where welcomes are never worn thin, where love attends life’s woes

In, pray what grants a glimpse of Home beyond time’s curtain-close

© Janet Martin

I love how the beginning of the second chapter

 is in sync with the season I am in;

slowly tucking Christmas away, bit by bit

Books like this kindle in me 

a sweet contentment for the domestic 'mundane'  bliss

For things like 

mending...

ironing...

folding laundry...

tidying clutter...

making cabbage rolls...

(enough to freeze some for convenient suppers-for-one))

Cabbage Rolls...

Psalm 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

For Our 'Happy-in-Waiting' (in Happy New Year)

I started this poem a week ago,

snaring lines as they bobbed by...

This week I finally had a chance to collect more fragments

from my trek through impending happiness-es!

I splashed through brooks, 

went on a picnic,

 laughed at a silly, fat robin,

and SO much more!

Happy Whatever Happy-in-waiting is waiting for you!

Winter’s canvas to be tickled with giggling snow-angel throngs

Below, one of my all-time favorite shots from days long gone

Victoria and her cousin...

Hush! plush-pink peony pom-poms wait to pop nature’s green cork...

Chill winds to be charmed and taken by soft zephyrs, blossom-sweet

Gardens to be warmed and ‘wakened by the banter of bare feet

Barren branches to be garnished with whispers of God-spun lace

Snowy hillsides to grow tarnished as sunbeams give winter chase

Dust to stir as fields are planted with both seed and farmer’s prayer

Hearts and souls to be enchanted by glory, heavens declare

Buds to burst with petal-plunder, miracles in every pod

Happiness immersed in wonder by the handiwork of God

Sassy robin tugging dinner from a grassy smorgasbord

Scrumptious supper-soups to simmer, coffees to be brewed and poured

Into fav’rite mugs, hand hugged and ever so blissfully sipped

While the bashful morn is tugged across skylines, pink and gold dipped

Summer’s harvest to be pickled, autumn to dwindle leaf-songs

Winter’s canvas to be tickled with giggling snow-angel throngs

Cheese and whole-grain cracker-stackers to pack in a picnic lunch

Bunch ‘o please-and-thank-you-happy snackers munching carrot-crunch

Steps to slow to walk with children, innocence to steal our breath

While we point the way to Heaven from earth’s thoroughfares of Death

Cozy snuggle-with-me twilight while outside the world grows dark

Foibles turning into hindsight as discernment meets its mark

Solemn Last Post and Reveille Remembrances-lest we forget

Fires to be stoked and fences to tend to, not mended yet

Hush! plush-pink peony pom-poms wait to pop nature’s green cork

Rush of seasons waits to romp and vex wild wanderlust with work

Payments to be made and worry to teach us to use our knees

Patience to test ‘we’re late’ hurry, as we search for phones, shoes, keys

Kindness to be shown, ink-hunger to be fed with books, books, books

Inner child to rediscover as we wade through fields and brooks

Cakes to bake and decorate for birthdays yet to celebrate

Beach to stroll and hand to hold; don’t wait until it is too late

Silver poplar’s shiny shivers, tap dancers made out of rain

Waltzing on impromptu rivers gushing down the street and lane

Naughty puppy to be scolded, antics by Mr. Mischief

Laundry to be washed and folded, to-do-lists-achieved-relief

Days to drain of exultation to God for blessing-heaped trays

Thought to tune with adoration, heart to overflow with praise

© Janet Martin

Scrumptious supper-soups to simmer,

(instead of scrumptious supper-soup, last night was scrumptious, supper-stirfry!)

Chicken and veg stir-fried and served on a bed of stir-fried/steamed cabbage and black beans

More than It (December Dawn) Seems...

This morning kicked off its tick-tock shaped sun-kissed socks and shoes

before I was able to complete the poem 

that burst into wanting-to-be shortly after waking...

The beauty of meditation 

and the duty of obligation

 always com/posing stiff competition!

Sometimes a poem culminates best 

not pressed/suppressed by sheer determination

but by releasing its fragments until they return

in whispers begging to be penned.

So it was today...

I began dipping chocolate bars and maybe because my

fingertips were chocolatey and my mind at ease

lines teased and flickered,  begging me to wash my hands

and capture them before they waft irretrievably away 😂🙏

On Saturday's post I forgot to flip over the recipe card 

for homemade Chocolate Bars, to show dipping instructions.

I am sharing the dipping instructions instead,  from Jim's (husbands') aunt.

(who makes perfect chocolate bars every Christmas)

Melt your preferred variety of chocolate (I used semi-sweet blocks)

over LOW heat. 

(put water in a pot and set another pot on top and let  the chocolate melt at 

around 3 or 4 temperature on the burner.)

(add a bit of shortening or Paro-wax for glossier finish.)

Dip and cool!

This morning showcased a most welcome sunrise after a stretch of unsunny dawns!

Dawn seems to wear a prayer-like solemnity where new mercies spill

As heavens pale and lift the veil that yester-dusk lowered until

We couldn’t see December’s close-cropped lea, the dark and leafless copse

Etched in stark magnificence against brilliant, westerly backdrops

That dimmed and disappeared; earth’s tiered sweeps shrouded by a sea

That drew away Today laden with ample opportunity

Dawn seems to sing! Every morning the old is reborn and made new

As mercy grants rekindled chance to learn to love as we ought to

Humbly aware of He who cares and helps us bear our shares of Must

Before we pass through that last door of Soul-to-God and dust to dust

And thus, because life is precious and Time a Very Fleeting Flow’r

Dawn seems to wake an urgent ache to make the most of every hour

….each moment rife with unlived life becoming lived; the untouched, touched

And often we forget what we beget as dawn is crudely crushed

By hands and feet; demands compete and how we meet them will become

Without disguise, the ink that dries in a Book tabling each day’s sum

While ticking clocks keep kicking off the shoes and socks at dawn reborn

And sometimes we are prone to see nothing at all but 'morn-to-morn'

…and often dawn seems here and gone without a second thought or prayer

A gift from God we barely nod at as it drifts, not to thin air

But to a page, where age to age is recording daily reply

Its telling proof spelling the truth that will be futile to deny

Then, pray that want may be subdued by gratitude as mercy streams

Renewed; where dawn is like a glimpse of Heaven bursting at its seams

© Janet Martin

And, let we forget!!!

As true now as in the days of Jeremiah's lament...

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

Lam.3:22-24

O Morning Star

Because Life's Best Things Never Change...

The innocence of tot...

The sacred charge of we

Who train their tender chain of thought

By what they hear and see...

(below, the beginning of what I hope is a long, friendly acquaintance

with gramma's fridge...😂💗)

The pleasures nature grants

Where every season-lease

Spills spectacles of birds and plants

Each its own masterpiece...

Life’s best things never change

The beauty of the earth

And sky, where the heavens proclaim

Day’s demise and rebirth

The innocence of tot

The sacred charge of we

Who train their tender chain of thought

By what they hear and see

The pleasures nature grants

Where every season-lease

Spills spectacles of birds and plants

Each its own masterpiece

A soulful melody

That strikes a chord so dear

Its fond familiarity

Evokes both smile and tear

The comfort and delight

Of squash-soup in a bowl

To satisfy the appetite

Of both body and soul

The good of lessons learned

The woods frost-kissed, or awed

Spectators with faces upturned

To feel the kiss of God

The bliss of coming home

The love of family

To share and bear the grin and groan

Of mirth and misery

Laughter, free from pizzazz 

Of vowels and consonants

But lilts and peals and sparkles as

It teaches hearts to dance

The thrill in simple things

Good books, a favorite mug

New mercy as each morning brings

God's warm handshake or hug

The gift of growing old

To taste the sweeter truth

Of joys time designs to withhold

From fairer green of youth

Moment-bubbles that break

In breathtaking surprise

A candle-spangled birthday cake

Or lake full of sunrise

The possibilities

Where ingredients start

To tickle taste-bud fantasies

With culinary art  

God’s word, infallible

Unswayed by vain dispute

No mortal verdict can annul

His Sovereign Absolute

Though seasons/eons may estrange

So much that cannot stay

Because life’s best things never change

We will not lose our way

…supper table to set

Dusk’s shadow-hallowed death

Hellos to kindle wicks not yet

Snuffed by farewell’s last breath

© Janet Martin

The possibilities

Where ingredients start

To tickle taste-bud fantasies

With culinary art 

 The comfort and delight

Of squash-soup in a bowl

To satisfy the appetite

Of both body and soul