What Kind of Morning-Person Are You?

(whole precious page below)

I wish I was a 'don't-hit-snooze!' morning person, but I'm not.

I tell myself hitting snooze helps prepare me 

to crawl out of that big, black hole of cozy oblivion,

 but it is in reality a bit of a lazy habit I intend to break! 

Keep me accountable, okay??😅💓

Also I am a 'coffee-before-talky-please' person

which I have no inclination to change...

Another gorgeous day well on its way...

'God, guide and keep'🙏

Across dawn’s slumber-heavy world alarm clocks buzz and beep

As drowsy bodies are uncurled and startled from sweet sleep

Some hit new day’s ground running, others stumble to a cup

Of fresh brewed tea or java, yawning, stretching, waking up

Some celebrate cognizance with verbose vigor, some groan

Some at best, muster unintelligible monotone

Some leap like fleet gazelles, while others hit snooze and deflate

For ten more minutes before it is time to acclimate

…to ‘night is done!! awake, awake, it’s time to rise and shine’

For today is a-wasting like a flower on time’s vine

Dreamlands jolt to reality beneath unfolding skies

Where duty calls and bumper-to-bumper traffic replies

Blink-blink, morning turns pink, as slumber’s blanket dissipates

Some sing for joy, some suffer pain and sorrow’s testing weights🙏🙏😥

Some exercise, some wise in their own eyes don’t think to pray

Some do; but all share in the common ground we call Today

© Janet Martin

This hymn, learned  when I was a child,

helped to shape a lifelong, holy habit!!

Did You Think To Pray?

Lyrics by Mary A. Kidder

1. Ere you left your room this morning,
   Did you think to pray?
   In the name of Christ our Savior,
   Did you sue for loving favor,
   As a shield today?
   • Refrain:
     Oh, how praying rests the weary!
     Prayer will change the night to day;
     So when life seems dark and dreary,
     Don’t forget to pray.
2. When you met with great temptation,
   Did you think to pray?
   By His dying love and merit,
   Did you claim the Holy Spirit
   As your guide and stay?
3. When your heart was filled with anger,
   Did you think to pray?
   Did you plead for grace, my brother,
   That you might forgive another
   Who had crossed your way?
4. When sore trials came upon you,
   Did you think to pray?
   When your soul was bowed in sorrow,
   Balm of Gilead did you borrow
   At the gates of day?

As regular visitors may guess, I am reading

the beautiful book of Isaiah right now!

Today's reading included this portion-

Ephemeral and Eternal

Gal.6:7-10

7Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked.

 Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

  8The one who sows to please his flesh, 

from the flesh will reap destruction; 

but the one who sows to please the Spirit, 

from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

9Let us not grow weary in well-doing, 

for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 

10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone,

 and especially to the family of faith.

Saturday was filled with harvest-season thrills!

(weather turned out drier than expected)

...and it's because of the on-coming generation that what we sow is so crucial;

they will be reaping some of that harvest!!

We cannot ever fully know

Where-when fruit grows from seeds we strew

Or how far-reaching is the flow

Of words we say and deeds we do

Eternal and ephemeral

The potent ink of moment-font

Unfathomable potential

For kinder thought and meeker want

…and humbler thanks for lessons learned

That teach a sweeter contentment

As moment-to-moment is turned

Into lifetimes composed and spent

Ah, we can never fully see

Where moments, as they slip through choice

Will root and sprout into a tree

As fruit of fallen seed gives voice

Then, pray for purer, truer love

For nobler goals than earth can boast

For what God grants is quite enough

To serve Him to the uttermost

As much as lies within us then

We ought to try each day to dwell

Peaceably with our fellowmen

Because of seeds that soon will tell

…how well we loved each other while

Moments tumbled through touch to meld

To Bygone’s everlasting isle

Of moments once so briefly held

© Janet Martin

Until we make our peace with God we cannot truly make peace with each other~

Yesterday, the service leader opened the service 

with prayer for this broken world

which we all have our own broken part in!

How comforting to be able to gather freely

and open God's word together to grow in

the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Rom.12:18

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, 

live peaceably with all men.

Isa.26:3

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: 

because he trusteth in thee.

Isa.48:22

“There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”

My, my, how the wicked wreak havoc

where peace could/would otherwise be!

We remember those who are suffering today,

especially in war-torn countries!

Living Love-song

Three lively youngsters are arriving shortly so their mom and dad

can have a little reprieve to celebrate 10 years of marriage.

Plans for a weekend getaway, due to life's unexpected curves,

were altered to a day-getaway!

p-s-s-st!! Due to cool, rainy weather I see another intense

memory-game on the horizon ...

..with two little players who

have no qualms about sneaking a peek if necessary😂💕

Here is a little hymn/prayer to the Keeper of our days,

who, through all of life's ups and downs

reminds us over and over 'Fear not'.

To the Keeper of our days may we live/lift a hymn of praise

May our meditations be pleasing, oh God, unto Thee

May our labors great and small magnify Thee, Lord of all

Thou who dost behold the heart of we who see, but in part

Guard our thought and guide our feet until face to face, we meet

Until dust reclaims it due and trust beholds all things new

May our utter longing be to live a love-song for Thee

© Janet Martin

 

🙏 as we pray for so many torn from their

earthly homes...

A Living Prayer

Autumn Awe-Awareness

A few glimpses,

at what sends Autumn's awe-meter over the top...

Thank-you, Lord

Awareness is fine-tuned to how the wind is winnowing the bough

Of supple sigh and so we try to linger longer in the Now

We loiter under arbors where we look up-up to stare and stare

At nature’s oh-so-fine design of leaf-motifs on sheafs of air

We seek out orchard-bowers bent with harvest’s rosy remanent

And feel earth’s pull; intangible mingling of gladness and lament

We polish Reason’s silver spoon and see a picnic afternoon

Beckoning, so we smile and go to steep our souls in Autumn’s boon

Of sunrise and set snared aloft in little leaf-mirrors soon doffed

Of nature’s wreath lowered beneath footsteps that fall, muffled and soft

Of treetops shedding threads, red-gold; autumn’s raiment is hard to hold

Of hearts that break with delight’s ache, of winds that tug, sassy and bold

Of dawn, rushing yon eastward rim where mercy’s renewed favors brim

To frameless sweeps where nameless deeps flood earth with heaven’s worship hymn

To rekindle the simple thrill from pumpkins perched on porch and sill

Or leaves tossed wild to long-lost child that romps and runs from hill to hill

© Janet Martin

Marriage (Is a Lifelong Unfolding)

It's really hard to believe that it's ten years!

Happy 10th Anniversary! 

May God bless you with many more happy, faithful years of marriage!

10 years later...

(photo credit to a photographer in Nova Scotia)

Everyone who is married knows 

that although wedding celebrations and congratulations are very special, 

Anniversary congratulations are ever-the-more so,

 having experienced, by the grace of God what it takes to fulfill marriage vows,

(especially as parenting-challenges are added🙏💝😍)

Marriage is a lifelong learning 

about highs and lows of love

A lifetime of no returning 

to a world of ‘I’ and ‘me’

From the moment vows are spoken 

and recorded up above

Only by death’s parting broken, 

marriage is a life of ‘we’

Marriage, is God’s holy knitting 

together of two to one

A lifetime of recommitting 

to be each other’s best friend

For this is no small endeavor, 

on a Wedding Day begun

Because marriage is forever; 

love, a student to the end

Marriage is full of surprises; 

'no dreamer’s dream long intact

Love’s politest of disguises 

soon faces reality

Testing Best of expectation

 with age-old matters of fact

Teaching stubborn indignation 

lessons in humility

Marriage is a bit like weather, 

some days full of smiles, sun-warm

Laughter finesses the tether 

that feels far too fine to break

But some days are dark with thunder, 

some days love must brave a storm

Some days love may dare to wonder 

if marriage was a mistake

But what God has joined together,

 by His grace He will sustain

Day by day, just like the weather, 

marriage weathers highs and lows

As love learns to say ‘I’m sorry’, 

faithful through both sun and rain

God is unfolding the glory 

of a very priceless Rose

© Janet Martin

Mark 10:9

Therefore what God has joined together,

 let no one separate.”

The Rose- Conway Twitty

Today's Treasure Hunt

Today's poem was inspired in part by today's post from The Homespun Wife.

She shares her artful, encouragement-treasures on Facebook etc.

Though circumstances vary every day is always new

The crosses that we carry, as we trust, God sees us through

He, the Maker of the earth and sky presents a big buffet

That authors wonder’s ‘my-oh-my’ many sweet times a day...

So let’s be kindly, humbly, gently grateful, ...

The cold water got his attention!!!😅😅💖

'better get my lost shoe' thought Tot

Let’s look a little slower, awed by autumn’s color-flood...

As today’s moments tumble through touch-taste-sight-smell and sound

Let’s turn it to a treasure hunt for favors that abound

Lest haste produces blindness and ingratitude’s increase

Or fear becomes a thief that robs us of hope, joy and peace

Or Want becomes a thought-consuming, self-indulgent creed/greed

As we trample kind mercies in a success-bent stampede

Let’s look a little slower, awed by autumn’s color-flood

And mourn and pray for those, where leaf-song wafts to pools of blood

Let’s reach a helping hand and meet life with love's tender touch

Let’s need each other rather than steal-kill-destroy and such

Let’s savor the full flavors of feasts on a smorgasbord

Of unmerited favors that we never could afford

Moment-momentum slips, drips, spirals, like leaf-poetry

And not a one returns to re-taste-touch-hear-sniff-or see

So let’s be kindly, humbly, gently grateful, for who knows

Who will be next to pass through time’s eternal curtain-close

Let’s pause to be utterly awed by God, right now and here

And thank Him for His perfect love able to cast out fear

Though circumstances vary every day is always new

The crosses that we carry, as we trust, God sees us through

He, the Maker of the earth and sky presents a big buffet

That authors wonder’s ‘my-oh-my’ many sweet times a day

To counter life’s unlovely with a hymn of grateful laud

As today’s treasure-hunt reveals the faithfulness of God

© Janet Martin

1 John 4:18-19

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, 

because fear involves torment. 

But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

19We lovee because He first loved us.

With very agonizing news-clips from Israel this

chapter was especially powerful today... 

because our hearts are heavy with concern and grief!

Psalm 121

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—

he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord watches over you—

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—

he will watch over your life;

8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.