Over-stuffed With Cake But Overflowing with Gratitude!

Celebrating 5 birthdays, Jim, myself, Emily and 2 boys I babysit, within a week

can leave one feeling a little over-caked...Cheesecake, chocolate cake and carrot cake, oh my!

(I was surprised and treated to a scrumptious carrot-cake baked by my daughter Emily using her hubby's grandma's recipe; the BEST carrot cake I have ever tasted!)

So, while well-stuffed with cake the heart overflows with gratitude!

A collage of the birthday boys-girls-cakes-meals!

For seasoned thrills where seasons spill

For give and take of Time’s free will

For hope and heartache intertwined

One by the other, more defined

For strength for toil, for slumber sweet

For days that never hit ‘repeat’

For boys full of mischief and noise

For girls in pink with dolly-toys

For suppertime where laughter lilts

And adds a patch to memory-quilts

For vintage of life’s distilled joys

That surge of ebbing years deploys

For all the gifts we cannot keep

But leave us breathless in their sweep

For loving’s bittersweet reward

Of hold, let go, we thank You, Lord

© Janet Martin

A Vow To Now and Here...A Birthday Poem

On one of Victoria and I's thrift-store expeditions this past winter 

we found a stack of Evergreen magazines. (filled with all sorts of British delights!!!)

This gem of a poem is on the back of one of the issues...

fitting as I turn another year older today!

  

Let me not pine for, or lament

For shriveled vines of summers spent

But commit, as years slip away

To cherish each and every day

Soft, swift the gift of Now and Here

Is gathered up in year-to-year

The evidence of daily grace

Kissed into ‘love-lines’ on my face

Then let me realize anew

The privilege of loving you

And never let complaint or fear

Taint time’s ephem’ral Now and Here

This thoroughfare of tear and *grin

That scrawls its living proof on skin

While gaining ground (not losing it)

Makes mid-life contemplate a bit…

…more on Time’s fragile haste of it

And how we dare not waste a bit

But vow, as moments slip away

To cherish each and every day

© Janet Martin

Thank-you God for the gift of another year in the books!

*a little chuckle (and to writers, a reminder to proof-read before posting)
as I proof-read I found I missed the 'r' in grin changing the mood of that line entirely!!!
reading instead..Its thoroughfare of tear and gin.lol!

My sister sent me this song this morning. LOVE it! thank-you Lucy!

Privileged!

1 Timothy 2:1-3

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, 
be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority,
so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

Sometimes we rant and can't agree
On religion and politics
Opinion without charity
Makes people pull out stones and sticks

For Trump, Trudeau, Putin, Jong-un
We should be careful what we say
 Choosing instead to bow our head
And be prayerful for them each day

Our freedom, fought and oft died for
Is nobody's inherent right
But it is everybody's charge
To pray for leaders morn-noon-night

Awful, today's state of affairs
And the lawlessness of the day
Due in large part to lack of prayers
That it is up to us to pray

Janet Martin

It is a privilege to vote!
...and a much higher privilege to
 "approach God's throne of grace with confidence,
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
Heb.4:16

Preapproved!

1 Thessalonians 2:4

...but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel,
so we speak, not as pleasing men,
but God who examines our hearts.

What we do for Jesus

With a heart of love

For He whose love frees us

Is always enough

So, with humble spirit

Raise your voice and sing

Love makes praise and worship

A fit offering

No ‘tryouts’ for Jesus

No too big or small

Each act of love pleases

He who loves us all

 

© Janet Martin

So thankful there are no auditions when it comes to serving God! 

Now doesn't this put a bounce in your step and a song in your heart?!
 

Metronome of Mercy!

 I need to listen to this song on a regular basis; it keeps me grounded!

 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? ³⁶ (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) ³⁷ No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
³⁸ And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. ³⁹ No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom.8:35-39

How kind, the promises of God

His Word consoles our dread with cheer

Unknown is not a cruel rod

Nor does it paralyze with fear

Because we sense His presence near

How faithful is the Word of He

Who never leaves us or forsakes

But honors love’s humility

And grants exactly what it takes

To see us through life’s groans and aches

How perfect are the ways of He

Whose love no thought can comprehend

Or fathom with mortality

That without Beginning or End

With which each soul will soon contend

How righteous is the will of God

In spite of what we understand

Our numbered days on earthy sod

Are but the Throughway to a Land

Beyond time’s sorrow-stricken strand

How Changeless is the hand of He

Who rules this scope of day and night

Who was, IS and will ever be

The one true God of Hope and light

And after death, eternal life

How endless is I AM, then pray

For ears to hear and eyes to see

So we may find The Only Way

From death to life eternally

Through He who died for you and me

© Janet Martin

Desire, Without Second Thought...Oh!!!

 This morning to someone who slept in I suggested turning in a little earlier at night remarking,

"I know it feels nice at the time but it often is not worth it in the morning" 

and I was struck how this applies to most things that please first glance or natural inclination...

and we all have something/things we struggle with at some point/points!

Face value often-times betrays

Seducing us in wily ways

For gaze is eager to indulge

On pleasantries sight will divulge

And as we covet its delight

Oh, soon we yearn to try a bite

Then when we try a bite we earn

The consequence of its return

So we should discern (not with eyes)

If what we desire is wise

This training ground for what remains

Tests want and will with subtle chains

Beware; lest fare that freedom craves

Is that which in the end enslaves

For Vice appears so nice, oh my,

In colours pleasing to the eye

As Endeavor is caught off guard

Sound Choice seems just a bit too hard

Charmed by the teasing, pleasing form

That takes a ling’ring look by storm

Deception cons Want with decoys

First glance perceives as promised joys

Desire without second thought

Ah, what disaster it has brought

Where face-value often betrays

Seducing us with wily ways

As what appeared so nice before

Is the costume Temptation wore

And gaze was eager to indulge

The pleasantries it might divulge

© Janet Martin

 Do not love the world or anything in the world. 

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—

is not from the Father but from the world.  

The world is passing away along with its desires, 

but whoever does the will of God remains forever. 

1 John 2:15-17

Worth our while just to listen to the first sentence in the video below!

(of course, then hopefully we are 'tempted' to listen to the rest!
Isn't good Temptation The BEST!!?)