I Have Lived Long Enough To Learn A Little

 Oh, the pleasure and pain of being a housewife/homemaker and mother!

Yes, it will rain after we've decided that the rain is over
so we hang out the laundry
because the sun is beaming and the weather said
'clearing in the afternoon'
and then we are just ready to back out the lawn mower 

when we hear a strange sound...sudden downpour!

 So the plans to till the garden or dig potatoes
after lawn-mowing are put on hold as well...😐

I have lived

Long enough to reap

The rewards of selfishness

And unselfishness as well

I have uttered more prayers

And shed more tears

And smiled more smiles

Than a little poem can spell

I have learned

That motherhood

Is good

In spite of bad days

Now and then

And that hard work

As well as laughter

Is good medicine

I have lived

Long enough to see

That we reap

What we sow

That discipline

Or the lack thereof

Will eventually

Definitely show

I have learned that it can rain

While the sun shines

(Or does the sun shine

While it rains?)

That the truth comes out

Sooner or later

Though to hide it

We took great pains

I have learned

That we grow old

Much quicker

Than I thought

That life 

and people 

and plans change

But never God

I have learned

That He is patient

And loving and patient

And merciful

Through and through

And forgiving and patient

And kind and patient,

And therefore we should be too

© Janet Martin

We Are Who/What We Read...

 What/Who are you reading these days?

As I read this post by Dr. Alan K Snyder 

I was suddenly struck anew by how deeply we are influenced/affected by what we read!

 (or who we listen to, often reading/quoting what someone else wrote)

In Jesus' final prayer before He went to the cross He prayed,

 I have given them Your word and the world has hated them; 

for they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

I am not asking that You take them out of the world, 

but that You keep them from the evil one. 

 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

"Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth."

As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world.

For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.

I am not asking on behalf of them alone,
but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message,
that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. 

May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 

 John 17:14-21

No matter how many books we collect and read...

 ...if we miss God's book we've missed it all!

They say so much; these teeny twists of ink turned into jot

They arrange on a barren page the images of thought

To touch the reader of the written word with much to tell

And just as ‘we are what we eat’ thus, what we read as well

The Moral Law of right and wrong instills a hounding need

To find, for sake of peace of mind, The Truth; and so we read

But all the greatest authors with The Latest Modern Whim

Can never change The First and Final Word written by Him

Debates of truth and reason fill many a musty tome

The living soul creates a Whole/hole, nay, mammoth astrodome

For Truth is Absolute; and till doubt’s dispute is destroyed

Nothing, no matter what we read or write will fill its void

Ah, wishful thinking seeks colleagues, when nursed to dogged thirst

God’s Truth is not a pillow concerned about comfort first

His Word is undeterred; though wheedling nature of mere men

Will try to barter with His truth through think-twists from a pen

…for the imagination is a wondrous, wily Force

It fosters the creation of many a fine discourse

And if we are not well-versed in the Truth, then, me oh my

We might exchange it for a well-dressed stranger’s valid lie

Hail, to the theologians and scholars; how much you read

The college of the mind is such a large classroom to feed

Yet fathoms of ‘sound knowledge’ cannot rearrange the Truth

And facts are stubborn subjects in spite of progressive youth

If we dismiss The One who holds the keys of death and hell

We miss it all; for God’s Word is a never-ending well

Where, after we believe, then Truth will affirm theory

For nothing else we read exceeds Supreme Author-ity

‘Without faith it is impossible to please Holy God’

Without His Word ignorance feasts on many a feckless fraud

But through His Word the evidence of things we cannot see

Nurtures man’s mustard seed-sized faith to a deep-rooted tree

They say so much; these teeny twists of ink turned into jot

They quicken, with written homage, the aptitude of thought

To fill the theater of Think, with much, so much to tell

And just as ‘we are what we eat’ thus, what we read as well

© Janet Martin

 Matthew 12:3 He answered, “Haven’t you read...?

No Matter What-Where-When-Why-How

 Yesterday we attended our niece's wedding.

It is common on such a day to hear someone (more midde-staged) remark

'they have no idea what lies ahead' or what they are getting themselves into"

just as we didn't and still don't!

But if we begin on the right path when we are young

with God as the Leader, what many a wrong turn we can avoid

and what a comfort when hard times come, 

(as a few of the young men

in this particular wedding-party have already been through;

death of parents etc) to trust in God.

These young men's speeches made me laugh as they shared loving memories 

and shed tears as they shared words of encouragement through faith in God!

(the only meaningful or true encouragement there can be)

(Haven't shared this song in a little while)

No matter what this life may bring

To alter what had been our plan

We know that nothing comes between

The faithful love of God to man

No matter where life’s path may go

Or what this very day betides

Through each Unknown still this we know

The faithful love of God abides

No matter when, why, how that we

Experience love’s chastening rod

What peace precedes the destiny

If we trust in the love of God

© Janet Martin

 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, 

neither angels nor principalities, 

neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, 

will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.…

Romans 8:37-39

A Daybreak Hallelujah

Black, black as ink dons hints of mauve then swathes of pink and gold

The way the day moves night away is something to behold

And with the light the onward fight of wrong and right proceeds

The noise of griefs and joys employs the creature’s words and deeds

The sky is like a choir bursting into glorious laud

Dawn’s hour like a flower unveiling the pow’r of God

Arise, arise, time flies silk-soft, like silver thistle seed

And draws us to the Awesome Throughway to which all roads lead

But it is not in vain; pleasure and pain of gain and loss

If we commit to suffer it as soldiers of the cross

The Prize beyond what dies and dawns instills hope’s drills with worth

And bids us climb the grid of time with more in mind than earth

Come now and bow beneath the wreath of heaven’s majesty

And raise a hymn of praise to He who loves us perfectly

He crowns the frowns and ups and downs of love and life with light

Where black as ink unshackles pink that melts away the night

© Janet Martin

 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
    for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
    for to you I entrust my life.

Psalm 143:8