I Love You Too

 

As they sugar our faces with kisses and smiles

And whisper ‘I love you’

Love eases the weight of life’s weary miles

As we reply ‘I love you too’

Life is a volley of testing and trust

Hope is a long avenue

Yet, we bear gladly those things we must

Just to say ‘I love you too’

These four most wonderful words in the world

Are better than three, tis true

For it’s when those three best words are told

That we reply ‘I love you too’

© Janet Martin

Last night it was Victoria who replied, 'I love you too'. I asked her if she realizes that she just said the four most beautiful words in the world. She thought for a few moments then smiled, She understood, to say those four words we must first hear three 'I love you'.

...unless of course its a teenager then you might still get three mumbled word replies...'love you too'

He Will Come Again...

The truth abides; we do not hope in vain

One thing remains in Love’s eternal plan

In clouds of glory; Heaven’s Son of Man

As He has gone away will come again

Lift up those weary feet; do not despair

Though scoffers scoff and doubting doubters jeer

We do not labor for man’s glory here

Someday the Son of Man will fill the air

And every knee will bow low to the sod

And every tongue confess that He IS God

As in the days of Noah, long ago

God tells us this is how the end will be

Few will believe; living in vanity

But what He promised surely will be so

This is the day of grace; do not delay

For just as He ascended He will come

To take the wretched, ransomed sinner home

There is no second chance on Judgment Day

Look up; for lo, deliverance is here

And soon the Son of Man will re-appear

The Shepherd knows His sheep; the Groom His Bride

But grace and mercy plead on our behalf

He died so we may live; the careless laugh

Love pours more Time into this vapor-side

For He desires that none should be lost

Time trembles on an ephemeral string

Eternity is such an awesome thing

We cannot comprehend denial’s cost

Dare we the blood-shed love of Jesus spurn?

As He has gone away He will return

© Janet Martin

Happy Ascension Day to all!


May we live with this in mind; He is coming soon!

What's Missing?

   

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The facts are book-written

To teach and re-tell

Tell me, what is missing

In the message we sell

The facts fill graveyards

Penitentiaries

But somewhere we’re failing

Miserably

The facts do not lie

The writing’s on the wall

Yet something is missing

In spite of it all

The facts speak in rhetoric

Of verbose truth

Why is the message

Lost on our youth?

The facts are there

In word well-designed

But a trusted example

Is much harder to find

© Janet Martin

Let’s set an example our kids can follow!

I was looking through my daughter's D.A.R.E. book filled with facts teaching our school-kids the dangers of drugs, alcohol, smoking and how to deal with peer-pressure when confronted with the choice of yes or no. This book is packed with examples of situations and what to do or what not to do. I also see many of these kids who took the course a few years on…somewhere the message is being lost, not on all but on too many! Why? Part of me admits a sad answer, again not all but too many…bad examples.

 …But be you doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like to a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was. …James 1: 22-24

Of Home...

  

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May home be more

Than a roof overhead

Or a place to sleep and eat

As living’s footprints

Come and go

Oh, may its echoes be sweet

May home be a place

Not just to pass through

On our way to the great big world

But, of may it be

A solace where

Love’s banner remains unfurled

May home be more

Than just a word

Of love and family

May it be the hearth

Where once you learned

Of God at your mother’s knee

© Janet Martin

Keeping the Faith #2...to Mothers

We live by faith for things we cannot see

God, help us then to do the best we can

How soon this little child upon our knee

Will grow to be a woman or a man

The laud-less toil of moments we employ

Will never fill the walls and halls of fame

But for a precious little girl or boy

We wear and bear a very special name

Mother

We live by faith; the faith of patient love

In offerings that may seem rather trite

Stirred, folded, wiped, polished, shook out and scrubbed

Then repeated from morning until night

Just to feel soft arms embrace our necks

Or hear their laughter lilting and carefree

Because they know who watches out for them

And loves them fully and most tenderly

Mother

We live by faith; for sight is kind and cruel

Love’s imperfections drive us to our knees

And motherhood can be a startling school

Of heart and hand and mind perplexities

But, just as God is faithful to our need

We kiss and scold and hold them when they fall

Trusting God for the increase in a seed

We listen just to hear their voices call

Mother

We live by faith; despair would claim our smile

If sight alone would be our little hope

For motherhood can be a thankless mile

Without the faith in One who helps us cope

Gladly we suffer love’s tender-sweet pain

Its recompense intangible, yet true

We laugh and weep and pray again, again

Just to hear them say, I love you too,

Mother

© Janet Martin

Keeping the Faith

 

How do I lay aside

This weight of living’s care

So I may run unhindered

This race from here to There?

How do I overcome

Life’s hindrances of grief

Lest I become entangled

In webs of unbelief?

How do I keep my faith

Fixed on hope’s faultless Prize

And not become distracted

By fear and follies lies?

Lord, help me cast aside

Temptation’s vile despair

Your Word is Holy Armor

Your fellowship is prayer

© Janet Martin

 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, Heb. 12:1

Beautiful You...to 'Girls' of all Ages

You are beautiful

And you are enough

Though media flaunts

Material stuff

God made you precious

His own through and through

And you are the only

Beautiful you

How quickly we finger

Our failures and flaws

But we ought to smile

And be thankful because

Beauty is not

Our shape or our skin

Beauty is something

That flows from within

Love is a beauty

That none can pretend

So let’s love each other

Girl, woman, friend

For then the mirror

We may glance into

Will reflect the image

Of a beautiful you

© Janet Martin

Morning Praise-song

The sky is full of broken dark

The morning teems with lay of lark

The bark-clad shaft of winter’s cold

Is waving banners of green-gold

Before the daylight’s deeper hues

Of dusk’s returning for its dues

Since Eden’s grief the sweat of man

Must fill the sheaf of mortal span

The night for rest, the day for toil

None are exempt from Eden’s spoil

And yet upon this broken place

None are exempt from mercy’s grace

The Light is greater than the dark

Come; join the lay of lilting lark

For the Creator is not gone

He fills the Darkness with the Dawn

His Hope immortal fills our days

Come; wave the banner of His praise

© Janet Martin