Greatest Want of All

 What, in this very moment is your greatest Want? 

Success? a house? Beauty?

Athletic body? freedom? health? wealth? fame?

world peace? a good meal?...the list of wants is endless...

Last week I mentioned my Grandmother who was a storehouse of quotes, proverbs and wisdom. I remember her repeating this one from the Bible when we wished for things...

 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1 Tim.6:6

We want, oh. how we often want what lies beyond our reach

And yet the Want of it stirs us toward what waits to be

Then oft in the soft rush of years, while tears and laughter teach

We learn to Want with wiser wish and lesser fantasy

The Wants of daily strife are part of human life, it seems

Some hound the groping hand while others spur the heart to hope

This world is a buffet of great temptation and daydreams

As what we feed the mind becomes the means whereby we cope

Want, when honed by a Higher Call can lead to achievement

But oft by foolish Want we stray and oft by it we fall

Oh, pray that in its crash-course of full-force relinquishment

Heaven becomes our heart’s desire and greatest Want of all

© Janet Martin

Some C.S.Lewis quotes addressing our Wants...

 “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
― C.S. Lewis

 “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses

 “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. ”
― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

 “Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
—C.S. Lewis

Our Mother-ness

We have no idea then

When we first begin

Of the do’s and don’ts

Of mothering

We have no idea

So we cuddle and fuss

And ooh and a-ah

And snuggle and kiss

While you coo and w-a-a

We sing and rock

And pat and soothe

Around the clock

And never dream

While we learn

And you teach

How far heartstrings

And faith

Must reach

While you learn to walk

We learn how to pray

While you learn to talk

We learn what not to say

While you learn to fly

Ah, we learn about trust

While you learn how to live

We learn how to love

© Janet Martin

This poem was inspired by today's poem (which I love, LOVE) on YDP entitled Your Babyness. 

It made me contemplate Our Motherness

One of my 'babies' turns 22 tomorrow...her golden birthday!

A Motley Crew...

We gather here, a motley crew

Of hurt and faith and hope

Of people learning how to love

The way that Jesus showed

We worship while our woe and want

Pray, take a lesser place

All diff’rent , yet with common bond

Of sinners saved by grace

Together we with grateful heart

Unite to sing love’s praise

To He who loves this motley art

Of faulty human ways

The eyes of He who sees within

Should turn away, but He

Beholds the blood that covers sin

And thereby sets us free

We gather here, a motley crew

Of need and humble joy

To celebrate hope anchored in

He which none can destroy

© Janet Martin

Let's face it...
no matter how spit-and-polished-to-a-shine we try to be on Sunday mornings,
 we're still a pretty motley crew!

That's what's so nice about God's family...

we get each other,

not because we're perfect

but because we're not!

We are all sinners trusting

the promises of God. 

Today's Worship service Scripture reading was John 16:5-33

What a lot of comforting promises we find in this passage

just before Jesus was led to His death...

a death that led to His resurrection and triumph over sin's curse; death!

His promise in verse 33:

 I have said these things to you, that

in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation. 

But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Renewing Love's Vows

 Today Poetic Bloomings is prompting us to contemplate the inevitable changelessness of change...

A good love song...

...another.

You say I always change my mind

A woman’s right, I’m told

But darling, my love will not change

Though we grow very old

Still, should love change, pray it will be

More kind and patient, dear

When we are long estranged from how

We got to There from here

Then all the changes we’ve fought through

And laughed and groaned and wept

Will be the legacy, my love

Of promises we’ve kept

© Janet Martin

August Ink

There’s something about August ink

It never drains the poet’s pen

But bleeds in cricket-song and gold

And begs the poet, ‘write again’

There’s something about August ink

It probes the poet’s in-most part

As bronzed suggestions of farewell

Begin to swell deep in the heart

There’s something about August ink

It runs where tousled gardens lie

In reams of green, gold, red, orange, pink

A color mass beneath blue sky

The ink of August does not beg

But twists its verse in flower-vines

It taunts the poet in her bed

To grapple with its half-writ lines

There’s something about August ink

That keens a lump within the throat

Because the poet kens the hints

Which wean the thread from nature’s coat

© Janet Martin