Above All Else...

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, 
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.   
Bear with each other and forgive one another
 if any of you has a grievance against someone. 
Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  
 And over all these virtues put on love, 
which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Col.3:12-14

Do we hunt and chase it

Ponder and embrace it

Does its law of liberty ease our stress?

Make us understanding

Patient, undemanding

Do we suffer for it without bitterness?

Does it author kindness

And sympathy’s blindness

Does it safeguard longing against jealousy?

Does its cheerful giving

Grant guidelines for living

Does it mold Today’s course of activity?

Does it, without ration

Fuel deep compassion

Does mercy instill in us its sacred call? 

Does it keep us holy

And honest and lowly

Tell me, is love our motive, above all

© Janet Martin

Hope-Mercy's Meanwhile...

Hope is so intricately interwoven with faith it's hard to separate the two...

I have things I wish for but until the wish turns into purposed hope 

there is little chance of the wish ever being more than fickle fancy.

There's a big difference between

'I wish for a trip to Europe' and 'I hope for a trip to Europe'! 😊 

In the Meanwhile, like a less-than-graceful ballerina,
I balance on Now's bit of broken beautiful

and bring glory to the Giver!

Hope holds a world of ambition and advent

It fuels purpose to pursue a goal

It dares to dream without discontentment

It wears the wish without want’s gaping hole

Hope feels its way through those rooms without windows

It finds the ray of light piercing the dark

It dares to dance in a ballroom of shadows

It kindles courage if but with a spark

Hope hears the whispers of God in faith’s orbit

It does not fret when ‘Not Yet’ leads its charge

It dares to nibble at the dangling carrot

and waits, while learning to live and love large

Hope cheers us onward without force or menace

It is the phoenix that bolsters these bones

It teaches us to take that which confronts us

And turn broken bricks into stepping stones

Hope is a hug when life feels hard to handle

It hails from heaven with beauty’s bravo

Hope is the flame that flickers on a candle

No matter how hard conflicting gales blow

Hope does not wallow without rhyme or reason

It does not drift without eyes on a goal

Hope is a flower without stem or season

It is a garden that blooms in the soul

© Janet Martin

 Isaiah 40:31 
 But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. 
They will soar on wings like eagles; 
they will run and not grow weary, 
they will walk and not be faint.

Like A Wave on The Sea...

Sometimes while supper is cooking I like to take a quick hike across the fields...

It always yields something to be awed about and makes one forget, 

for a bit, the things we could fret about!  

Surging toward us like waves of the sea

All the tomorrows still waiting to be

Who knows what laughter and heartache they hold

Sweeping the shoreline with turquoise and gold

Darling, the morrow that yesterday etched

Stencils blue shadows like art, pencil-sketched

Almost the moments that it had withheld

Have drained into the place where all days meld

Beauty is timeless as He who designs

Wonders too countless to rein into lines

Free-for-all fortune that no one can buy

Small as a sparkle and big as the sky

Sometimes the future feels like a grand wave

Rolling toward us with forces to brave

But as it sweeps across shorelines gold-gray

It never exceeds the scope of Today

Time always leaves yesterday in the dust

It never insist on tomorrow’s must

Who knows what waits where the season-bells chime

But this; we face it one day at a time

© Janet Martin

Where Hope Is Like A Bridge of Gold

"When we give up our selfish purposes and seek God’s purposes,

 we find the true meaning of our lives"

 (Matthew 16:24-26).
Excerpt from Today's Bible Love Notes Devotion
 Please pray for the ministry of BLN who is under great opposition and attack!
 Let's be bold for Christ!

Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
2 Cor.3:12

Today, let’s pray for fearlessness

Whatever this day holds

To sense Love’s unfailing nearness

Where dawn’s flower unfolds

For mercy, without merit earned

Extends God’s grace anew

Though oft His love is not returned

He cares for me and you

Let’s pray for wakened awareness

To what soon slips away

To sense love’s immeasurable-ness

In each gift of *Today

Where Hope is like a bridge of gold

That spans time’s thinning rift

Therefore, let's labor and be bold

For He who grants its gift

© Janet Martin

 For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you.
On the day of salvation, I helped you.”
Indeed, the “right time” is now.
*Today is the day of salvation.
2 Cor.6:2 NLT

I Would Never Trade...It

Writing while waiting for rounds two and three for supper😀

 The skyline was a riveting shade of blue all day long...

Thankful for the hello that preceded dusk's farewell

Bits of doggerel to waft soft on a brooding breeze

Thankful for the day we had before its shadows fell

Thankful for the moments that we wove to memories

No it’s not often perfect but the better part is good

And I would never trade it with you even if I could

Thankful for the rooms that echo with love’s song and dance

For the times we had and have, that always end too soon

Thankful for the music-notes that loss seems to enhance

Making me more mindful of a whistling minstrel's tune

No, the 'stars' are not perfect but as time's bars flare and fade

We seem to write a melody that I would never trade

Thankful for the seasons that run through us, smooth as air

Always something new in what is old as Father Time

Thankful for the reasons that teach us to live in prayer

Thankful for the view after the hill so hard to climb

Yes, it’s far, far from perfect; precious page so soon forsook

But I would never trade it for somebody else’s book

© Janet Martin