Because We Are Our Brother's Keeper...

 

Whether walking where the water washes sand-prints away,

Whether sprawled in a chair or bed-ridden,

Whether wearing flip-flops or The Original Muck

We leave footprints never fully hidden

 ***
 Lest the blood/mud of another's downfall stains our hands, 

we should think before we drink!

 ***

Every alcoholic started with 'one harmless drink'

 ***

"Just because I can control myself after one drink doesn't mean that someone watching can. 

Imagine if  the word 'no' when offered a drink saves someone else from a life of addiction 

and all the awfulness attached!

No amount of momentary pleasure is worth opening the door to another's lifetime of heartache!" 

~My dad~

***

"I like it!" said Eve and gave some to Adam...and he liked it too!

Good-bye Eden!

***

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, 

and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.

Daniel 1:8

***

We might think it won’t matter, once

Just a quick slip from the path

To taste a sip from  'Sly One's Sconce’

But oh…the aftermath

cause  someone tells someone who tells

Someone who tells one who

Thinks if 'we' did then he/she would like

To try it ‘just once’ too

He finds he likes the taste so well

He has two, three and four…

And now Desire burns like hell

With a thirst he can’t ignore

…and now the one who tried it once

Unscathed, watches one cursed

Glass after glass, he drinks and drinks

But cannot quench his thirst

© Janet Martin

 Below, a few excerpts from

James MacDonald;

Walk in the Word Message entitled

Wise up About Alcohol

The Bible does not require total abstinence,

but it recommends it as the highest and best course, filled with the greatest wisdom.
I believe it is a choice which you can be most proud of when you stand before the Lord Jesus Christ.

... It is a loving choice. As you grow in your faith, you discern that you make choices
 not because of what is best for you, but by what is best for others.
The Christian life is not all about you—what you can handle,
what you can control, what’s nice for you.
The Christian life is for others.  We don’t live to ourselves.

... As a follower of Jesus, if you’re not sure it’s right for you to drink alcohol,
then it’s wrong for you to do it even if it isn’t wrong....

There is nothing more devastating than a life (SO much potential!) destroyed by addiction!

Of Intangible Imprints

It's peach and blueberry season. yay(two of my all-time food favs!)

 But even with peaches and blueberries we need to practice moderation 

(unless we enjoy an old-fashioned stomach-ache...believe me. I know this to be true!😏)

Since My Scare a few weeks ago I have not touched cold cereal but returned to

the safety of oatmeal 'mush' with fresh fruit, ground flax seed and a drizzle of maple-syrup!

YUM!!!

Press well your barefoot paperweight

On pages printed with soon-past

Where morning flings ajar its gate

And ushers in the ‘break of fast’

Where peaches drip and blossoms slip

From buds that cannot clench the wreath

Hoisted to bloom a little bit

Before it strews the dust beneath

Where what we hold is like a flow’r

Soon kissing pages dripped with peach

As the impressions of an hour

Scatter imprints beyond our reach

© Janet Martin

Coming to Grips...with the Thought of Today

...that's what it felt like this morning; SO many reasons to be glad...and sad.

Thought both a weapon and a shield, therefore

foolish to charge forth until we kneel

and commit today to He who will lead the way if we let Him!

yes, even through thorn-pricks of consequence when we were not 

'quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry'...

the first verse in our Sunday morning message. 

James 1:19-27

Now splays across dew-dressed newness of day

Visions that looking forward will contrive

Thought reaches to imminent come-what-may

For reasons to be glad to be alive

The cricket croons, the swallows dart and dive

In tune with He who has the final say

The golds and grays of high and lows enmesh

Ah, yesterdays and morrows none can clench

Where joy and sorrow-climaxes of flesh

Induce a thirst that no world-well will quench

…and we of rebel-nature cannot wrench

From Mercy’s mysteries, want’s willful ‘yes’

Ah, consequence of action slips our mind

If impulse wins before we test its yield

The nugget of an instant, harvest lined

Like seeds, so small until they fill a field

Where what we plant in time will be revealed

To edify and humble humankind

…now splays across the loss and gain of days

Fresh ways to learn to discern love from lust

Thought reaches but cannot predict the ways

Of God; not ours to know but simply trust

Where crickets croon and swallows skim the dust

In tune with He who tips Time’s seasoned trays

© Janet Martin

 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he...

Prov.23:7

Making the Best of Imperfection

Blooms and babies/tots; two steadfast perfections
in a world full of much that is not!

Make the best of imperfection

Tell me, what more can we do?

Morning’s faithful resurrection

Anoints track-records with dew

…where we, familiar with failure

Feel for faith’s footholds once more

Ways to truly ‘love your neighbour’

Better than we did before

Through the freedom of forgiveness

We can live a worship-hymn

  Light life's do and say with gladness

While its days are growing dim

Shine the love of He who loved us
So, He sent His only Son
 So the righteousness of Jesus
Can make righteous, everyone

Make the best of imperfection
Tell me, what else can we do?
Morning's faithful resurrection
Grants fresh grace for me and you

...makes the best of imperfection
Through the perfect love of He
Who, through mercy's kind inflection
Grants fresh hope to you and me

© Janet Martin

 “There is no fear in love. 
But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  
The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  
We love because He first loved us.” 
 1 John 4:18-19

Wellspring...

We visited friends at their cottage last night, 

a great few hours of refreshment blessed by God- art and fellowship

(and I didn't bring a camera!!!)oh well,

Here are a few shots from Thurs. afternoon with Melissa home.

We threw a quilt over an old table, dragged tea, books and chairs to the back yard and

enjoyed everything simple in a home-sweet-backyard haven)

Ah Earth, glossed with four season’s worth of wonder, you and I

Enamored and enchanted by God’s art on sod, sea, sky

Oppression of things human would drain us of grit and vim

But for constant reminders of the kind goodness of Him

Hope plants within our bearing both contentment and appeal

For earth also grants agonies only heaven can heal

Where we, in constant hunger for more than the taste of bread

Drink from the well of wonderment beneath and overhead

He pairs the wind and willow for a serenade, my love

Dusk’s air is like a pillow full of almost-diamond trove

And we are always willing to be awed by old things new

The handiwork of God, a glorious gift to me and you

This is the day the Lord has made; ah, what an honest face

Unfolds from bud to flower where night melts in morn’s embrace

...as we, if we are honest are so often put to shame

By nothing more than butterflies and gardens without blame

© Janet Martin

Jim and I…well, Jim anyway, talked about building barns, finances, interest rates, Trump, industry

and gout in his foot(everything from soup to nuts) etc…

while I wrote (tried to write this)…lol! (the price of sleeping in on a Sat.)