Monday Muse for All-Week Dues...

Loving

Lord, may our simple service be

To love with kind humility

To show in every way we can

Our love for You

Through loving our fellowman

Glad

Not with what I wish I had

Nor with ‘if’ or ‘when’s vague plan

But to serve with a heart so glad

With what I have

Right where I am

Willing

Not for specific size or shape of task

But simply for willingness, Lord, I ask

Then, if I trust You, whatever the call

No task will be too great or small

Worthy

We are not all called

To a grand, noble quest

But we are all called

To give our best

And if our best

Is all we bring

Each quest will be

A grand, noble thing

Trusting

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

Our understanding sees but in part

Only God knows what is in store

So we should choose to trust Him more

Perseverance

Life is race

And a race, my friend

Is not won in the middle

But always, at the end

So, runner, be humble

Lest, caught off guard

We decide, as we stumble

Trying hard is too hard

Look well, fellow-athlete

For the winners are they

Not of smooth, swift beginnings

But who run faithfully, all the way

Worship

Not bloated blather of lip-art

But worship with work-hands and heart

***

More than pompous word-parades

Or loud charades of show

But gladness for the day God made

And His grace whereby we go

***

Who knows what this week

Will bring to you and me

Still, Lord, help us seek

To live thankfully

Happy Monday!

© Janet Martin

Glimpse

The last star fades on paling deep

Time’s tide of days expands its cast

The sky is like a coral mast

Affixed to silver-misted sweep

From eastern brim Someone sets free

A heaven-hymn of peach and pinks

Where sailors of Time’s tempests glimpse

The Keeper of both man and sea

© Janet Martin

We/He

We, sojourners of season; we, who wither soon, like grass

We, grapple-rs of reason and understanding’s fixed impasse

We, free to choose response where recompense is veiled from sight

We, witness-bearers of mere glimpses of God’s love and might

He, holy, holy, holy, we, the ones He came to save

He, righteousness and redemption and hope beyond the grave

He, tender lovingkindness, forgiveness for sinner’s seed

He, faithful love and mercy to succor man’s deepest need

We, barely able to begin to fathom Father-God

He Creator of earth and heaven; we, flowers of sod

While we guess at His fullness He blesses beyond all ken

For He is God, the One True God and we are only men

© Janet Martin

…yet for us there is but one God, 

the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; 

and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, 

through whom all things came 

and through whom we live. 

1 Cor.8:6

Baby

 Because Rob and Emily were youth group leaders for years right up until the birth of this little guy they have the joy of watching many teens speechless with wonder(well, for the first moments or two) as they pop in for a peek

Tell me who isn't made glad by a baby?!
From the very young to the very old, a baby brings us all together in a meeting of purest joy!

It is so small, yet tears down walls

It says nothing, yet says it all

It rings the joy-bells of the soul

It brings together young and old

From far and near they come to laud

The evidence of love and God

To ooh and a-ah and gaze and smile

In wonder at a newborn child

© Janet Martin

Photo credit: Brittany Ruppert lifelong cousin and bestie-friend of baby's mom!

One of my favorite baby-poems...

Babies Don't Keep
 Author: Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Saturday Is Life's Oasis

Saturday is life’s oasis; it is a place set apart

For second-cup coffee graces, slower paces; it is art

Art of something extra-yummy in the oven, art of books

Art of nature showcasing what midweek scurry overlooks

Saturday is like a picnic; be it gold or gray, its air

Spreads time’s offering like a blanket on life’s finest dining chair

It is linger-here-a-little, nibble on a poem-treat

Revel in the luxury of bathrobe breakfast, slipper-feet

Saturday may demand Duty; bitty sweep-mop-scrub-dust-cook

Still, it is a thing of beauty if we take the time to look

Look a little thankful longer at the common curves bestowed

Where we would starve of heart-hunger without home’s humble abode

Saturday is like a celebration of labor well-spent

It is like an invitation to live slower, more content

Like a once-a-week oasis Saturday spills sweet and slow

Pours in second cups of coffee, only if we make it so

© Janet Martin

This Saturday morning started a little later then I prefer because I woke up and

 ‘cooded breed add cooded stop coughick’ (couldn’t breathe and couldn’t stop coughing)

Its ‘oasis' smells like Vicks and cough drops but ‘it sure bakes be appreciate forber bore buddade bordicks’😁(make me appreciate former more mundane mornings)

...or maybe Saturday at your house is more like this:
(we all know what these are like:)
Today's YDP

Time for another cup?
or a nibble-and-read?

I forgot to add the dough-circle is about 1" thickness before baking