How Indeed or How? In Deed

How faithfully his hand bestows

Inside each little bud, a rose...

(early morning childcare means late day poem-post😊)

In spite of the gloomy rain outdoors there was still  lots of sunshine indoors

Sometimes the days that I secretly worry might be a little long and indoor-dullish

turn out to fly by in a flurry of happiness!

And I humbled-ly whisper, 'thank-you God'

How kindly He our need supplies 

He thrills us with constant surprise 

How faithfully his hand bestows 

Inside each little bud, a rose 

How manifold his majesty 

As we behold a fringe of He 

Whose ways and wonderments extend 

Beyond what man can comprehend 

How often He protects and keeps 

While we proceed with flying leaps 

Into a heap of wish and whim 

Without a single thought of Him 

How patient is the One who hears

The tender tenure of our tears

How wise and loving the design

That tests the branches of the Vine

How trustworthy and absolute 

Is He who no one can refute

How holy is the ordinance

That requires obedience

 How never mistaken or late

How ever loving, ever great 

How dare we live and never laud 

Our everlasting Father, God 

How kindly He supplies our need

How we should worship Him indeed

How faithfully his hand bestows

The grace whereby each mortal goes

© Janet Martin 

Psalm 100:5
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; 

and his truth endureth to all generations.

A Servant's Song/Prayer

NKJV

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, 

let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Matt.16:24

Watching the morning-mist evaporate before my eyes

was a vivid image of this verse

 What is your life? 

You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

James 4:14  

Makes us reevaluate our goals and motives,

doesn't it?!

Lord let my life, whatever be 

Lift up a hymn of praise to Thee 

And let my love, through deed and tongue 

Be poured out in a servant’s song 

Lord, let life’s labour be more sweet 

In worship poured through hands and feet 

Lord, let my soul-hunger be fed 

Through sustenance of Living Bread 

Lord, Thou the Potter, I, the clay 

Oh, let me not despise Thy way 

But in whatever doth betide 

Let Thy peace the storm override 

Dear Lord, this is my humble plea 

Let Your Divine Light flow through me 

Let Your love my flawed love refine 

To make my 'light-house' shine, shine, shine

© Janet Martin 

'Do you want to die and face the Lord 

Knowing you didn’t give Him your best?'

from this message below

The Second step: Growth-Dr. Charles Stanley

 

Sovereign Silence

Is it the brooding before dawn?

Is it a missed-kissed bower?

Is this your Sovereign silence 

The brooding before dawn 

A test of faith’s endurance 

A wrestling Angel’s pawn 

Is this the Mount of Horeb 

The place where you reveal 

The power of your Spirit 

To conquer Belial 

Is this Your gentle whisper 

After earthquake and fire 

A Message you deliver 

To temper heart’s desire 

Is this glory’s hiatus 

Of three days in the tomb 

Before the Rock of Ages 

Rolls back the rock of gloom 

Is this a mist-kissed bower 

Hope’s silent suffering 

The bud before the flower 

Is this shadow Your wing 

© Janet Martin 

Still, Still With Thee

(this morning felt bathed in this hymn)

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

He Hideth My Soul

If This Should Be Time's Final Fling

Psalm 62:11-12

One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard:

“Power belongs to you, God,

and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;

and, “You reward everyone

according to what they have done.”

Dawn is someone's farewell hymn today!

What if it is you or me?

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written 

in your book before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:16

If this should be time’s final fling for you or I today 

If dawn would be a farewell hymn with no more songs to play 

If buttered toast and coffee was our last repast before 

The Soul sets sail through time’s thin veil into Forevermore 

If today one of us would cross that dark and mystic deep 

As you or I were ushered from time’s thrum of wake and sleep 

Are we prepared for God who gives to take it back again 

And seal the pledge that drives a wedge between our soul and skin 

Are we ready to be rewarded for what we have done

To hear what is recorded in a ledger read by One

Where what is written there will prove the God we worshiped here

(yes, we should all contemplate this with reverential fear)

If Opportunity today would grant its final let 

Would what we do and say fit us to leave without regret 

Are we ready to meet the One who knows heart’s yea and nay 

If this should be time’s final fling for you or I today

 

© Janet Martin

Of Gratitude Parades...

Short and sweet is what all time feels like

with those we love...

 

My camera kept dying and my phone camera stinks but you get the idea💓💕😍

picture below; Victoria reading Jack and the Beanstalk

"fe-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman"

Happy 7th Anniversary, Rob and Emily

I’m thankful for the days that always seem to fade too fast 

Where, when we are together dusk’s shadows seem swiftly cast 

The past is always hungry for the present I have learned 

The eagerness of hours leaves not one moment unturned 

I’m thankful for the memories after a day is spent 

To press soft on my reverie love’s bittersweet lament 

Where we are always hungry for more time with those we love 

And farewell always rushes in before we’ve had enough 

I’m thankful for the blessing of a place to hang our hats 

And call it home sweet home; a place to recharge and relax 

I’m thankful that the heart can hold, long after laughter fades 

The reel that plays its pictures back in gratitude-parades 

© Janet Martin

Nothing Puts Us At Ease Like a Trek Among Trees

 

Nothing puts us at ease like a trek among trees...

 

the woods I was in today wasn't quite as colorful as the one from the other day

so I'm tucking in some of those shots for a pop of colour!

nothing puts us at ease like leaf-canopies...

 

nothing puts us at ease like stature of trees...

....where the hill and the field culled of earth's goodly yield

evokes a most conflicting tide...

Nothing puts us at ease like a trek among trees 

In autumn apparel bedecked 

Nothing satisfies hearts like the ache earth imparts 

As farewell spills in thrills unchecked 

Where the hill and the field culled of seed’s goodly yield 

Evokes a most conflicting tide 

As bitter and sweet with equal force compete 

In autumn’s arid countryside 

Nothing puts us at ease like the fine harmonies 

Of wind-song from wood-calliope 

Where over our heads the lofty lintel sheds 

Fall’s Magnum Opus, note by note 

A kaleidoscope swirling hunger and hope 

Into a heartache-humbled hymn 

As the hierarchy of time’s supremacy 

Beams bold on the red and gold limb 

Nothing puts us at ease like simple luxuries 

We take out of doors to full-taste 

Where the nip in the air grips and makes us aware 

Of preciousness we dare not waste 

Nothing woos and consoles like the anthem that tolls 

From fall’s late-day gold-dappled eaves 

Where change cannot faze or estrange nature’s ways 

Emphasized in soft-falling leaves 

Nothing puts us at ease like the stature of trees

Though they make us feel oh, so small

Nothing puts us at ease like cool sass in the breeze

Rousing a rush of pure fall

Nothing puts us at ease like autumn canopies

In orange-scarlet-yellow tat 

Nothing puts us at ease like a trek among trees

On a crunchy and colorful mat 

© Janet Martin 

So Thankful

 

Jim declared to me as I was proof-reading this poem to him

that no one has time to read to the end of such a long thing...

My response; I suppose what I write is not for people in a hurry, 

so if you are in a hurry (as we all often are!!)

I hope one or two stanzas of this poem will bless and cheer you

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend!

(I might post some 'happiness moments' later.

Depending how the day goes!

So thankful that in spite of all the trouble living brings 

We have more to live for than this world’s present sufferings 

So thankful that hope is far more than a four-letter word 

It is a death-defying faith in Jesus Christ our Lord 

So thankful for the harvest that is almost gathered in 

For wonder working worship (not magic) beneath our skin 

So thankful Mercy knows how we are formed; that we are dust 

His loving kindness fills the gaps in mankind’s struggling trust 

So thankful to be hemmed in by a cloud of witnesses 

For Author and Perfecter of the faith that we profess 

So thankful to be in the sacred service love bestows 

Where each task serves a greater purpose than appearance shows 

So thankful for the blessings that we wear and taste and touch 

For ears to hear and eyes to see God’s handiwork and such 

So thankful that in spite of all we cannot understand 

The One who does not leave us comfortless is in command 

So thankful that when fear threatens to capsize faith’s frail barge 

No matter what the circumstance God is in perfect charge 

So thankful, like the storm-tossed sea of Galilee without 

The winds and waves within obey when we relinquish doubt 

So thankful for life's simple things (though nothing really is) 

When we consider the well-spring of blessing’s genesis 

So thankful for each season that leaves hearts speechlessly stirred 

At beauty’s myriad arrangements ever undeterred 

So thankful for a little plot to call our home, sweet home 

Where humble prayer covers each cot; so thankful for the poem 

That leaps and swirls, surges and rushes like a waterfall 

Until the poet sets it free in form of madrigal 

So thankful for tea kettles, fuzzy mittens, apple trees 

For leaves, tumbling like tawny kittens on the bonny breeze 

So thankful for love’s hugs and laughter to cheer Adam’s curse 

For God with us in health and sickness, for better or worse 

So thankful for the morning when the old is new and bright 

For mercy’s Living Proof adorning earth and sky with light 

So thankful for gardens and woodlands, ebb and flowing tide 

The undulating panorama of the countryside 

So thankful for so much where ink and time are not enough 

To tell of all the ways we taste the miracle of love 

So thankful for today to fill all it does not disclose 

With praise and praise and praise to God from whom all blessing flows 

© Janet Martin 

The Doxology Anthems of Light

  

Psalm 65

Praise awaits[b] you, our God, in Zion;
    to you our vows will be fulfilled.
2 You who answer prayer,
    to you all people will come.
3 When we were overwhelmed by sins,
    you forgave[c] our transgressions.
4 Blessed are those you choose
    and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house,
    of your holy temple.

You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds,
    God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
    and of the farthest seas,
6 who formed the mountains by your power,
    having armed yourself with strength,
7 who stilled the roaring of the seas,
    the roaring of their waves,
    and the turmoil of the nations.
8 The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
    where morning dawns, where evening fades,
    you call forth songs of joy.

You care for the land and water it;
    you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
    to provide the people with grain,
    for so you have ordained it.[d]
10 You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
    you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
11 You crown the year with your bounty,
    and your carts overflow with abundance.
12 The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
    the hills are clothed with gladness.
13 The meadows are covered with flocks
    and the valleys are mantled with grain;
    they shout for joy and sing.

Fall Is a Flame That Flickers...

I yielded to temptation today

and went for a mid-afternoon ramble...

Gold tallow drips from poplar tapers etched against blue skies 

Always autumn’s Artist authors awe with age-old surprise 

The belfry of green summer has surrendered to the toll 

Of Autumn’s golden glockenspiel spell-binding (or unwinding) heart and soul 

Yield to temptation for in autumn it is not a sin 

Walk slower, linger longer in nature’s veldt, vapour-thin 

And be beguiled by beauty running wild and unrestrained 

Do not a bystander in earth’s leaf-ballad unchained 

The hour of the flower, with each frost grows more fragile 

Sometimes a chore must wait while we explore fall’s favored isle 

What tender torture to be torn between two tugging loves 

The one is a house nice and clean, smelling of spice and cloves 

And other lovely oven-things that bring smiles of delight 

(for mother’s apron strings are wound 'round hearty appetite😉) 

But oh, the other, sweet unrivaled best of ecstasies 

…a ramble through the unraveling tapestry of trees 

Each fall I vow that I will be braver in love’s farewell 

Grief is the price that love must pay; ah, let me pay it well 

So I will let love’s hunger feast upon tossed red and gold 

Where humble wonder is increased as we pause to behold 

Ah, love is far too lonely if we only mourn ‘has-bin’ 

Oh look, time disappears like bean and corn fields gathered in 

Where stubble gleams, silver in frost and golden in the sun 

The bubble of a season wafts, then pops and it is gone 

Today may be the best day left to drink in what remains 

For though we drink and drink not one droplet of colour drains

Till weightless as the glimmer of whisper-borne thistle-silk 

The coppice-torch is dimmed then snuffed by Time’s ethereal ilk 

Goodness and mercy overflow where past and future wed 

To unfold a grand garden full of roses overhead 

Then wonder without wish before cold gales cut to the quick 

Fall is a flame that flickers on yon woodland’s waning wick 

© Janet Martin

The mop and bucket waited just fine till I got back 😀

Baking got done before the ramble...

because well, read the poem and you will see😃