On Kindness...

Life ought not to be a ‘who cares, swim or sink’ affair

Not an ‘each man for himself’, ‘survival of the fittest’ dare

Life ought to be ‘we are all in this together’ human race

We are all sisters and brothers, all for God, because of grace

© Janet Martin

Here is a personal kindness test he offers at the end of this message:

Am I Kind?

A kind person Gives

A kind person Forgives

A kind person is attractive (made attractive by kindness)

A kind person does not insist on having his/her own way

A kind person delights in delighting others

A kind person has a pleasant disposition

A kind person has concern for others

A kind person loves,

...is gentle,

warm-hearted,

unselfish,

generous,

understanding,

considerate,

thoughtful,

healing,

merciful,

uses kind words,

is helpful,

courteous,

A kind person excuses the mistakes of others,

...is Goodness in action

Kindness is like snow

It beautifies everything it covers! 

 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Eph.4:32

In General...

Life, in general, allows lessons

Some, we never would ask for

But God knows our human-nature

Tendency; how we ignore

Him when things go just like we like it

So now and again He sends

Lessons, seemingly unpleasant

Yielding wisdom in the end

We, in general, best remember

Not those times when life was smooth

But the slips, the scrapes and mishaps

That no one would ever choose

Yet God, kind and wise and holy

Allows us Experience

Lending us life’s bumps and bruises

To shape meek obedience

God, in general, does not tell us

All His wherefores and His whys

What seems to us like misfortunes

Oft are blessings in disguise

So instead of blaming Him for

That which we cannot full see

We, in general should be thankful

Learning love’s humility

© Janet Martin

I wondered what the guy behind me in his new BIG, shiny truck thought as he followed the old, beat-up mini-van out after we both dropped our boys off at their summer farm job.

…but I never did want this bumper fixed;

It is a reminder of a morning when my wrong attitude caused a reckless and impatient backing up (in an empty church-parking lot!!) beside a garbage bin…and I hit it!

 "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin;

 yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."…Exodus 34:6-7

Melissa, Katrina...and all other daughters of other mothers who pray...

They come and go,

And oh, they know

Wherever they may be

Their mother’s prayers

Like heaven-stairs

Surround them tenderly

Untried Knowledge

Meets ‘life’s college’

Need tames wanderlust

While daughters learn

And mothers yearn

And learn too, about trust

…and so they pray

‘Lord, be their Stay

Their keened and Constant Truth

While Independence

Is more important

Than mother’s homemade soup

© Janet Martin

Praying this morning for my daughter Melissa, my sister's daughter Katrina and all other daughters who are learning some 'tougher grinds' of independence...

(these prayers do not exclude sons!) Aren't you thankful that God can take care of what we can't?

The Rain

This is the 4th rainy Tuesday in a row! Galoshes, anyone?

It slips like a summer-soft love-song to us

It drips from leaf-tips in silver-lisped chorus

It rolls, a cajoling love-note, splish-a-splash

It trickles and tickles each petal and sash

It patters; a tempo of tiptoe feet fly

It splatters like tears falling from heaven’s eye

It chatters in monotone regale, drip-drop

And pours from a storehouse bereft of its top

It spills, washes hills, meadows, woodland and panes

It chuckles in puddles and giggles down lanes

It sighs in the street beneath tires that hiss

It renders to each up-turned bloom-face, a kiss

It plays its percussion from bands without shape

On every surface of land and sea-scape

It washes the world in sky-rivers unfurled

Then rests in the nests of flower-cups uncurled

It dallies then sallies in its downward race

To nurture earth-gardens in rivers of grace

It weeps from the lintel, and sweeps over plain

And slips like a summer-soft love-song; the rain 

© Janet Martin

Wandering Through Word-gardens...

Thought touches suggestion

Then feels the fabric of

This frond and that

To find exact

-ly the right one to love

Thought, like a savvy shopper

Scans vowels and consonants

Until it finds

The perfect blend

Of syllable-romance

A slip of silk, my darling

A rush of raw appeal

A sob, a sigh,

A sweep of sky

-high lavender and teal

A tip-toe tango, fox-trot

A hold-me-close-slow-dance

A riveting,

Breath-pivoting

Farewell or second chance

Thought does not tally moments

As they spill into hours

For oh, the poets knows

A rose

Must bud before it flow’rs

© Janet Martin

Reflections on Reflections

 

For all we tout and spout and shout

With devout and bold nerve

Our lives are a quiet reflection

Of the God we serve...

***

Not what we say

But what we do

Reflects what we

Love most, or who...

***

Where people are hungry 

and dying

and poor 

with never enough

of anything

God calls us

To light 

Life's hope

With humble,

Holy

Reflections of Him

*** 

As we reflect on all that 

God

gave on love's cross for us

It spurs the heart to seek new ways

To love-live

For Jesus!

***

I blush.

The truth is hard

And not

Disguised 

Too prettily

as I reflect on my motives

I see

Too much of

....

me...

Janet~