A Good Place to Be...

Tomorrow’s forecast is doleful

The future-predictions bleak

I don’t really like to think about

The tomorrow of which they speak

They say darker days are coming

I’m tired of ‘they say, they say’

And oh, I’m so very thankful

That I live in Today

'Do not worry about tomorrow'
Its fears are as ancient as dust
Greater than all our tomorrows
Is the God in whom we trust
The unknown lies before us
Who knows its 'what if's' or 'what mays'?
Only One; He watches o'er us
In all of our 'Todays'

© Janet Martin

 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, 

for tomorrow will worry about itself. 

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matt. 6:34

Of Bubbles and Troubles

Soon this bubble

Of toil and trouble

Will meet a bubble’s fate

We ought to say

What we wish we would say

Before it is too late

Don’t let the trouble

On this earth-bubble

Rob you from love’s precious smile

Life is a glance

Of fleeting chance

So let’s make its moment worthwhile

© Janet Martin

Common Destinies

Image Source:  breeze-software.com

We may travel sundry, far-scattered roads

Across this scope of sod

But there waits a common meeting-place

For every road leads to God

Left or right or up or down

The narrow road or broad

Both are but the stepping-stone

To eternity and God

© Janet Martin

Drought-stricken

They died without ever

Coming into full bloom

No rain to nurture their root

What could have been

Simply shriveled away

Too starved to bear any fruit

I look at my children

Tender buds on a vine

Hungry; needing to be fed

Oh God may they never

Shrivel up and die

Because all I gave them was bread

© Janet Martin

I was cutting away flowers the other day that did not survive the drought. Beauty gone to waste…

Beauty Secret

The secret to beauty

That never grows old

Is to love beyond duty

Without being told

Man sees the outward

God sees the heart

Oh, may it be

Our most beautiful part

© Janet Martin

The Empty Night is Full...

The empty night is full of thoughts

They spill from shadow-lands

The ‘what-have-beens’ and what-are-nots’

Each vie for sole command

Of this great ship upon a sea

Without limit or form

As future-fear and memory

Clash in a silent storm

The empty night is full of naught

But moments as they flow

Not through our hands but through our thought

…the little that we know

And in its gaping quietness

How keen our thoughts recall

The hastening tide we curse and bless

Within its rise and fall

© Janet Martin

What We Are...

We will not be judged by the job we hold

Nor the price tag of clothes or car

Our worth is not measured by silver or gold

But simply by what we are

Wealth is not found in the things we possess

Fortune is no lucky star

We will be judged not by our success

But simply by what we are

Much is required to whom much is given

The road to God is not far

We bring nothing to the gates of Heaven

But this alone…what we are

© Janet Martin

Song of Praise

Oh my soul, be still and spill

With free unhindered praise

The Lord adorns the dust-wrought hill

His mercy cloaks our days

From dawn to dusk to dawn, His love

And faithfulness employs

The sun, the moon and stars above

The circle of our joys

How awesome is Your handiwork

Our hungry eyes behold

Your glory splayed across the earth

In wonders manifold

With goodness unreserved You weave

Your breath into each bloom

As reverent hearts humbly perceive

The Master of the Loom

The blind of mind cannot discern

The Hand beneath it all

The One who guides winter to spring

And summer into fall

...oh, may our hearts and hands become

The instruments we raise

Exalting the eternal One

In gladdened songs of praise

© Janet Martin

Inspired by Psalms 92