A Day for Celebration

 Serenade to Spring

This is a day for celebration

Open your heart and sing

Join the myriad of creation

Heralding the dawn of spring

This is a day of miracle-wonder

Immaculate repertoire

Ripple of zephyr and rolling of thunder

Tuning the landscape choir

This is the day of woodland-minstrels

Stories of nature’s rebirth

Open your eyes, nothing is minuscule

On this greatest day on earth

This is the day of rain-song and gold sun

Laughing on earth’s avenue

Fling back the curtain to Scene number one

Of spring’s 2012 debut

© Janet Martin

Tender Mercy

When I cannot pray for as I ought
or know how to give thanks
Oh Lord, you understand my thought
and You fill in the blanks

Janet~

I opened my mouth to praise Him
as I beheld expanding ribbons of beauty
dissolving the dark ...but could simply gape in dumb-founded awe!
...that He should love us so
as to open the pages of the sky in daily original glory!
All I could whisper was 'thank-you for seeing what I know not how to say!'

Blind Trust

 Image source:  christ.com

We cannot see what we hope for

All we can do is trust

In He who tips the jars of Heav’n

To water this earth’s dust

His wells of goodness and mercy

Are never parched or dry

Above, beneath, beside us

Is His all-beholding eye

Dare we to question He who bars

The cloud into its realm-

In perfect order scatters stars

Upon the floors of Heaven?

Life’s threshing floor oft we misjudge

As we cry out to God

Vain chaff He longs to purge from us

Love wields His earnest rod

We cannot see what we hope for

Nor understand the thought

Of He who laid the universe

Into a sea of naught

How mighty is the One we trust

He turns the tide of seasons

He clothes the earth, waters the dust

And loves us beyond reason

© Janet Martin

Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

  “Who is this that obscures my plans
   with words without knowledge?
 Brace yourself like a man;
   I will question you,
   and you shall answer me.
 ⁴“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
   Tell me, if you understand. Job 38 1-4

Wondering...

Sometimes I wonder
as I pray for another
And pour out to God my plea
Sometimes I wonder
if there is another
perhaps somewhere
praying for me?

Sometimes I wonder
as I lay out my sorrows
where God alone can see
and I pray them up yonder
oh, sometimes I wonder
Does anyone pray for me?

J~

When You Feel Like Quitting...

 

Image Source:  vinylfancy.com

When you feel like quitting

Don’t

If you think it will improve things

It won’t

There is only one way to succeed

Keep on keeping on and never heed

The voice that tells you ‘this is it’

And ‘I think that you should quit’

So if you feel like quitting

Don’t

Fight back using words like

‘Won’t’

No hill lasts forever; but it cannot be climbed

By anything more than one step at a time

He cannot win, who decides this is it

So begin again, but don’t quit

When you feel like quitting

Don’t

Sweet victory lies in the

Won’t

Anything worth having is worth the fight

So dig in and give it your utter-might

Shut out the voice that wearies the won’t

And if you want to quit,

…well, don’t

© Janet Martin

I'm giving myself the advice tonight, that I freely hand the kids:)

Soul-Survey

Image Source: survey-reviews.net

Do I love you enough

To serve you in the dark

Willingly,
where nobody cares or sees?

Do I love you enough

To spend extra time

Willingly,
with you, down on my knees?

Do I love you enough

To be a servant

Willingly,
of many a hidden task?

Do I love you enough?

Oh God please don’t answer

These simple questions
I’m ashamed to ask

© Janet Martin

Inspired by; oodles of grace

 So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Tend My lambs."

 He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Shepherd My sheep."

He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Tend My sheep.  John 21:15-17

Loving Proof~

Sometimes love's most tender offerings 
are nothing more than realizations
that the 'missing you' agony it brings
is the proof of its existence at all

Janet aka Mom

To those north of the sunny south...

Kind Sir, you’re mistaken

We're not really taken

By your candid blue gaze and your brawny-bold stance

But if you insist

We will not resist

The lure of your passion and thoughts of romance

Oh, we’ll let you woo us

And pretend to love us

While we also pretend to fall for your smile

Your laughter entices

Fool-hardy sacrifices

Yet we are quite willing to allow you to beguile

us with your charm

as we lean on your arm

Ignoring the facts that quietly persist

Behind your glance

As we frolic and dance

Are the age-old truths that forever exist

You hold in your candor

And pleasing demeanor

The power to slip from illusions of spring

As smiles turns to scowls

Warm sighs to brute howls

And winter returns for one final fling

© Janet Martin

Yes, we are in shorts and flip-flops (Emily was tubing on the river for goodness sakes!!!)

But mittens and scarves are not packed away

We know that April can pack a mean punch

And we know this weather is NOT here to stay…

So get out and enjoy it while you can!!!