Monday Morning Melody

 Wowsers, the way laundry can hatch in hampers, huh?!

Oh, count your Monday blessings as a week begins again

As mountains made of laundry lose their luster now and then

As plans are rearranged to fit with change’s stringent stride

And all we know for certain is that God is at our side

Oh, make a joyful noise unto the Giver of its gift

For all that time employs is soon a flivver set adrift

And all that we hold dear soon sparks the tear where echoes tug

As what we make of now and here is sealed in Bygone’s hug

Oh, sing a song unto the One who blesses us with life

And teaches us sweetness of joy through trouble’s test and strife

Then lift a hallelujah hymn with glad humility

Where Monday holds the door again for likes of you and me

© Janet Martin

On Keeping Faith's Focus...

 Here it is, unveiling the skyline; a new day of grace!

 ...soon it will sink, a wink of pink on the westward brink... 

...into Past's vast embrace

The wily one with many charms

Our wish and whim regales

Wise then to lean on loving arms

Of He who never fails

God's faithful Word no one should doubt

But beg His Spirit prove

That which no one can thrive without

Life’s greatest merit; love

The wars we fight twixt right and wrong

Would be a losing chase

Without the One who makes us strong

According to His grace

Humility, ah, who can boast

This attitude of Christ

Save as we yield our utter most

To He who loved us first

With heart and soul and strength and mind

We ought to love the Lord

For who knows when time’s mist and wind

Will usher in Reward

© Janet Martin

Gorgeous beginning to a whole new week...

Pray the Lord to guide and keep!

 So we aspire to please Him, whether we are here in this body or away from it.

 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, 

 that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, 

 whether good or bad. 

Therefore, since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. 

What we are is clear to God, and I hope it is clear to your conscience as well.

2 Cor.5:9-11

We were challenged in yesterday morning's message to have the same attitude as Christ-

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, 

and was made in the likeness of men:

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, 

and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Phil. 2:5-11 KJV

Pride and humility will both suffer but one suffers for self, the other for others/God.

Five-Foot-Three...

 Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be tall.

Especially when I'm stretching to snag something off the top kitchen-shelf with a wooden spoon😉

I was born five inches too short

To fulfill fantasy

Because the Good Lord saw it fit

To make me five foot three

So, though I need a stool to reach

The highest kitchen shelf

I’ll be as thankful as can be

Because I am myself

And though, foolishly, I admit

I sometimes envy those

Who always seem ‘the perfect fit’

For any style of clothes

I do not care to waste away

On wish-futility

But make the most of every day

That takes my five-foot three

…so when I think my height a curse

As some far shelf I rue

I’ll remember it could be worse

I could be five-foot-two

© Janet Martin

For All Those Things That Never Change...from a mom

'Because' I replied, dissatisfied with the vague answer when asked how Youth spent an evening/well into the night "because 'just hanging out' can cover a multitude of possibilities!"

(I well recall that answer:)

"Oh, so you don't trust us?" was the instant challenge to which 'old mother' replied,

"all my trust in the world won't keep you/th from temptation

and if you are a healthy red-blooded youth, you will be tempted

because THAT is one thing that does not change in spite of everything that does

which is why mothers pray for their sons/daughters...

They have no idea (yet) how many prayers follow, cover and carry...

Compensation comes in measures Youth cannot yet realize

Some things never change in spite of what plain sight just might surmise

Mother has a reason for the seasoned views that she maintains

…she was young like you once too with hunger coursing through her veins

We who seem quite antiquated to the up and coming clan

Wear suspicious second looks because of ways common to man

Where no matter how the tides may turn or what they might estrange

As the years goes by they too will learn how some things never change

She will always worry/pray not just because that’s what moms do

But because she knows the way a foot can twist inside a shoe

And for all the words invented to assuage and dismiss doubt

It is possible to tuck worlds between words that are left out

There will always be temptation (but never without escape)

Best intentions are worth nothing without deeds that give them shape

Idle hands are easy subjects for the devil to employ

Secret guilt is like a lesion that robs life of peace and joy

When your brow, still smooth a satin wears a crown with hints of snow

And the dust that young heels kicked up feels like just a wink ago

In some yonder sudden moment in time’s tender youth forsook

You will understand the reason for your mother’s searching look

 

© Janet Martin

Moms have been praying for ages!

 Are you a praying mother?

The world needs them now more than ever!