We Are So Glad For Dads...

Happy Father's Day!

We are so glad for dads who teach lads how to hit a ball

Who kindly sit a bit and listen to some childish wish

Who pause in spite of work because they love more than its call

Who sit on docks or riverbanks to thank the Lord…and fish

We are so glad for dads who try so hard to do their best

To guide, correct, provide, protect; an unrelenting Must

A man who realizes the significance of steps

How little feet that follow need somebody they can trust

We are so glad for dads who take the time to laugh and tease

And listen to small chatter of matters tall and dream-wild

And dads who bounce their baby boys and girls upon their knees

Because they know how swift the ease of moments steals the child  

We are so glad for dads who get down on their knees and pray

And ask their Father for direction in a world gone mad

Lest, God forbid, they are the feet that leads a child astray

We are so glad for men who make us proud to call them Dad

© Janet Martin

 

A letter from a father to his sons...

Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction;
    pay attention and gain understanding.
² I give you sound learning,
    so do not forsake my teaching.
³ For I too was a son to my father,
    still tender, and cherished by my mother.
⁴ Then he taught me, and he said to me,
    “Take hold of my words with all your heart;
    keep my commands, and you will live.
⁵ Get wisdom, get understanding;
    do not forget my words or turn away from them.
⁶ Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;
    love her, and she will watch over you.
⁷ The beginning of wisdom is this: Get^[a] wisdom.
    Though it cost all you have,^[b] get understanding.
⁸ Cherish her, and she will exalt you;
    embrace her, and she will honor you.
⁹ She will give you a garland to grace your head
    and present you with a glorious crown.”

¹⁰ Listen, my son, accept what I say,
    and the years of your life will be many.
¹¹ I instruct you in the way of wisdom
    and lead you along straight paths.
¹² When you walk, your steps will not be hampered;
    when you run, you will not stumble.
¹³ Hold on to instruction, do not let it go;
    guard it well, for it is your life.
¹⁴ Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
    or walk in the way of evildoers.
¹⁵ Avoid it, do not travel on it;
    turn from it and go on your way.
¹⁶ For they cannot rest until they do evil;
    they are robbed of sleep till they make someone stumble.
¹⁷ They eat the bread of wickedness
    and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸ The path of the righteous is like the morning sun,
    shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
¹⁹ But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
    they do not know what makes them stumble.

²⁰ My son, pay attention to what I say;
    turn your ear to my words.
²¹ Do not let them out of your sight,
    keep them within your heart;
²² for they are life to those who find them
    and health to one’s whole body.
²³ Above all else, guard your heart,
    for everything you do flows from it.
²⁴ Keep your mouth free of perversity;
    keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
²⁵ Let your eyes look straight ahead;
    fix your gaze directly before you.
²⁶ Give careful thought to the^[c] paths for your feet
    and be steadfast in all your ways.
²⁷ Do not turn to the right or the left;
    keep your foot from evil.

Prov.4   

continued here

and here

and here

Immutably

We are the workmanship of He

Who loves mankind immutably

The work that He prepared us for

Is brimming from dawn’s beaming door

Where set among the blooms of June

And heavens hung with bluest noon

We never know what waits to be

From He who loves immutably

And fills the way we are with worth

Then calls us ‘the salt of the earth’

Where this calling of High Esteem

Demands of us more than daydream

Though we should all take time to look

Into a silver-spangled brook

And bow beneath the hierarchy

Of He who lavishes the tree

And stirs the dark with ruddy bow’r

And probes the bud to leaf and flow’r

Arranging on favors of morn

The highs and lows of rose and thorn

Good-byes, hellos, laughter and tear

Soft-meld to make a life, my dear

But never out of reach of He

Who loves us all immutably

© Janet Martin

So much sorrow,

So much sickness

So much we will never know

Still the favor

Of God's kindness

Lends the grace whereby we go

So much longing

So much looking

For the peace not of this world

So much mercy

Overflowing

From the jars of dawn unfurled!

So much reason to reach for God's Hand where the sands of new day brim

Then, no matter what is waiting He will keep us close to Him 

Simply Learning

Little did the work-soiled farmer who stopped in the middle of a very busy day

realize what a portrait of daddy-love he 'painted'; 

...sitting in a wooden rocker beside his 4 yr. old birthday girl

at lunch yesterday, opening gifts and reading cards.

 (his 'looking back' will hopefully hold dear these precious moments)

Little 3 yr. old Girl, so excited to be invited was very proud of the gift she brought to give...

(she really wanted to keep it!)

(...but those are always the best gifts to give, aren't they; the ones we wish we could keep!)

When the party was over she asked if she could run up-stairs one last time so I followed her up and heard her say to the tea-set now arranged on the Birthday Girl's bed.

"good-bye, tea-party dishes. I will miss you"

I try hard not to look back and wish for things I cannot change. 

Its a good thing to be able to forgive ourselves and others for fumbles then let go and move on,

 hopefully with a nugget of wisdom and grace retained as 'reward'!

Looking back can be a lesson in reproach and raw regret

If we overlook the reason; we were simply learning yet

And those trip-and-fumble follies would be hallmarks of disgrace

If a headlong stumble handed only mud upon the face

Looking back can be a lesson in humility and love

For if we are truly honest there is evidence to prove

We are all-together students of desire’s scars and dreams

Where the days of Simply Learning are not over yet, it seems

Looking back can be a lesson in forgiveness at its best

Then, when its kind grace is granted we have courage for the rest

Where earth’s School of Life is filled with first-time-for-this fellowmen

And we all are Simply Learning (let’s all just be kinder then)

Looking back can be a lesson in learning to look ahead

And be very, Very mindful of this now-moment instead

So when its thread falls behind us; stitches none can rearrange

Then its looking back won’t bind us to the Things we cannot change

© Janet Martin

 Let your eyes look forward;

fix your gaze straight ahead...

Prov.4:25

What Waits Within the Wings...

I promise I did not write this just so I could post another butterfly photo😉

What waits within the wings where Time unfolds its day to day

Is anybody’s guess but One to whom we all should pray

Then as we entrust The Unknown to His kindness and care

It lifts the weight that makes us groan with worry’s dark despair

What waits within the wings is never grace-of-God deprived

When pulses quicken with ‘what-if’ He whispers soft inside

Where He who calmed the violent wind and waves with ‘peace, be still’

Is He who silences fear’s storms if faith yields to His will

Aha, aha, naysayers scoff as trouble rends the prow

And all they see is Misery of little Here and Now

Blind, until belief melts the scales that knowledge cannot rend

As Word that never fails bestows what no one can pretend

What waits within the wings are steppingstones that skim time’s sod

Where feet carry the soul of man back to the arms of God

And then, oh, sacred then, when we with that last exhale see

His face, what waits within the wings will be Eternity

© Janet Martin

2 Cor.2: 6-16

 Among the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom—but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Rather, as it is written:

“No eye has seen,

no ear has heard,

no heart has imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.