Waning Melody

 

 

Wand wafts, lofty wind-chimes whisper

Strum a slow sun-shadow dance

Soft upon the yellow summer

Fronds fall prey to Thought-Rembrandts

Like a waterfall of flowers

Clover, sage So Long Songs lilt

Tumbling, noiseless from bloom bowers

To a hall of childhood spilt 

Paper airplanes, oak-leaf sailboats

Splay; a winsome interlude

Ere they fade, mosaic eighth-notes

On a page of Past subdued

Come, before the ruddy rushes

Fling their silk coats to the air

And the Thing we cradle pushes

Off into the Blue Somewhere

We are too polite to murmur

Tug of warring heart and mind

Lures us where the yellow summer

Plays on days soon left behind  

Ah, methinks I hear a cricket

Prelude to a symphony

Wafting in the lofty thicket

Of a waning melody

© Janet Martin

Overcomer

Oft hope would be foiled by failure

Fervor overcome with fear

Hunger like a honing saber

Strumming sorrow’s numbing tear

Disappointment would defeat us

Heartache, ah, terminal blight

Dark the dawn would break to greet us

Overcome by terror’s night

Long would be the road, and lonesome

Haunted by misstep and such

Discouragement like a prison

Barring lips from laughter’s touch

But for One, who grants forgiveness

By His grace joy fills this clod

Overcome with mercy’s kindness

From a faithful, loving God  

From wasteland He wakes a garden

Overcomes Past with Today

Provider of peace and pardon

As we how head-heart and pray

Keeper of His Promise, Heaven

Faith trusts in what none can see

Through Christ's blood sinners forgiven

Overcome hell’s destiny

© Janet Martin

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, 

that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Heb.4:16

 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. 

In this world you will have trouble. 

But take heart! 

I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. 

And His commandments are not burdensome,

 because everyone born of God overcomes the world.  

And this is the victory that has overcome the world: 

our faith.  

Who then overcomes the world? 

Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

1 John 5:3-5

Heaven in our Hands...

Although there was a lot of this last week at the cottage,

 ...leaving golf-courses lake-strewn

there was always this to keep spirits from getting very low;-)

Ah baby-child, pure innocence

Stranger as yet to sin’s commands

Kissable chubby, cherub-ness

A glimpse of heaven in our hands

And we oft, softly wonder-struck

By teeny toes and rose-bud lips

Know that we need far more than luck

On life's vast sea of sinking ships

'Where influence soon touches you'

Ah, pray God then to touch us first

So we know what is good and true

In a world, careless and sin-cursed

And pray God; guide our hearts-hands-feet

Lest we would lead a child astray

Where innocence so pure and sweet

Cannot and will not stay this way

© Janet Martin

Whether soldier, worker, athlete, etc.; to learn something or excel at it requires training...

A powerful word when applied to the raising of our children!

 Train up a child in the way he should go:

 and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Prov.22:6

Aha, Aha, Amen

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Jer.17:9

The heart, the heart of man

Is wicked to the core

We ought, we ought; all that we can

To read God’s scriptures more

The love, the love of God

Never betrays our trust

We should, we should humbly applaud

His compassion for us

The hope, the hope we have

Is found in Him alone

How cold, how cold the hostile grave

‘Neath unbeliever’s stone

Prepare, prepare with awe

For that from which none flee

The righteousness of Holy God

And Immortality

The way, the way we end

Depends Wholly on this;

Believe, believe, my soulmate, friend

In He who ever IS

© Janet Martin

It is IMPOSSIBLE not to realize it again and again,
as we turn from the graveyard filled with the dead
 back to the land of the 'still dying',
 how deceitful, wicked and worldly, when left to its own vices,
the heart is!
Let's face it; God's grace is our only, utter hope!

Better The House of Mourning

 Yesterday we attended the funeral of another one of my mother-in-law's sisters. 

She was in her 88th year, spending most of them in quiet, humble service to her family and fellowman.

This verse was read in her funeral message of comfort and caution...

It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: 

for that(death) is the end of all men; 

and the living will lay it to his heart.

Eccles.7:2

Better the house of mourning

Its meeting to attend

Than to ignore the warning

‘Soon life’s short stint will end’

Better the house of mourning

Where solemn heed is paid

To an orbit adorning

Life's dust-to-dust parade

Better the house of mourning

Than wine and feast's embrace

Lest we fall prey to scorning

The gravity of grace

Better the house of mourning

For there meek thought is bowed

Beneath Love’s tender awning

Resisted by the proud

Better the house of mourning

As mankind lays to heart

The crux of this sojourning

Where flesh and soul will part

© Janet Martin

While chatting with my oldest sister at the luncheon after the service, I mentioned that when I get home I need to tend to 2 Bu. of beans waiting to be preserved.

Guess who showed up at my house as soon as she could?!! Yep, Cheryl, my oldest sister.

Sometimes secretly I think her name might be Tabitha and this verse(Acts 9:36) 

in modern day could read something like this;
In Wallenstein there is a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Cheryl); 

she is always doing good and helping the poor.

SO glad Sat. night's picking is preserved...

  ...before we begin today's batch.