For Better or Worse...

 Thanking God for the privilege of being able 

to celebrate 32 years of marriage today, by His grace...

Part of what I love about Jim is his never-ending ability to make me laugh.
I think he was waiting for an anniversary post cause he just saw it and texted me this
"I look like a pylon"😂

For better or for worse; who knows what factors will unfold

To test and try the caliber of vows to have and hold

This life of highs and lows husband and wife must jointly meet

To weather together both woe and wonders bittersweet

Marriage is no band-wagon that we board and disembark

According to our whims and wants; it is till death doth part

So from the words ‘I do’ we ought to keep this thought in mind

To help us strive to be more unselfish, patient and kind

For better or for worse is not a curse or ball and chain

It is the grace of sharing both love's pleasure and its pain 

It is full of surprises after groom kisses the bride

After two become one and discover love's 'other side' 😉

Marriage is more than signatures on a certificate

Two become one and none on earth its bond can abrogate

For what the Lord has joined His Hand alone will disannul

Till death doth part is not for faint of heart or disloyal

Marriage is learning to forgive and give more than we take

It’s saying I am sorry and admitting a mistake

It’s meeting in the middle toward a mutual aim

It’s learning to adapt to change; nobody stays the same

Marriage; it takes two but is always happier with Three

Husband and wife, with God as the crowning Supremacy

Where pray, that day by day and year by year as vows are tried

Marriage reflects the love that Heaven’s Groom has for His Bride

© Janet Martin

 Sharing Jean Hersey's practical and timeless thoughts on marriage

from the book The Shape of a Year

(hope you can read it...I couldn't choose a favourite paragraph) 

 

Jim and I are both Don Williams fans...

choosing these today

 

 

Undeserved Forgiveness

If we confess our sins,

he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

 

Undeserved forgiveness

God, how can it be?

For you fully witness

Our depravity

Yet You do not waver

Lord, if we confess

You cleanse us, dear Saviour

From unrighteousness

Lord of loving kindness

You grant in wrath’s place

Undeserved forgiveness

Unmerited grace

© Janet Martin

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, 

and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,  

not by works, so that no one can boast.

Eph.2:8-9

Unfailing Light

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Matt.5:9

  

Thy Word is a lamp to my feet; the darkness of this world

Would overcome save for the light by Thy true Word unfurled

Greater is He within than this world’s total sum

Of armies; with Thy word oh Father, we will overcome

Save us, oh Lord our God with Thy unfailing love

Keep us from being partakers when push might turn to shove

Bless the peacemakers, Lord;  be our strength and stay

As we study Thy faithful Word Your lamp will light the way

Be merciful Oh, Lord and comfort our lament

The wicked will have their reward, the proud their punishment

Then, as we cling to Thee and the Lamp of Thy word

Let your face shine on us and fill us with Your love, oh Lord

© Janet Martin

 Psalm 31

²³ Love the Lord, all his faithful people!
    The Lord preserves those who are true to him,
    but the proud he pays back in full.
²⁴ Be strong and take heart,
    all you who hope in the Lord.

Life, A Little Word With Big Ramification

Gardening...a mixed bag of flowers and frustration!

these flowers didn't even get to bloom 

before an army of green caterpillars destroyed them over night!

 

so, no columbines this year.

 

Life...a mixed bag of celebration and sorrow!

The bleeding hearts that survived the May snows are beautiful!

 The hostas are being mangled by something but not sure what!

Usually hosta look good at least for a little before the snails destroy them

but I don't think this is snails. Too many pieces lying around!

But, this is life...a series of problem-solving!

Life, its very word involves us; inhale, exhale, fragile cord

Leasing to each one the onus of its blessing from the Lord

Life, a very small but serious undertaking of a toll

Where a shawl of fleeting fabric veils the All of deathless soul

Soon the summary of choices will unfold the doer’s due

Soon life’s orchestra of voices will fade from earth’s avenue

Life, how often we must struggle to weather its ‘my, oh my’

Where this ephemeral bubble holds much more than meets the eye

Life, how uncertain the nearness to the end of numbered days

When we open up our eyes and only Jesus fills our gaze

© Janet Martin

 
Ecclesiastes 3:2
a time to be born and a time to die, 

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

The Momentum of Moments...

Happy Birthday. Jim!

thank-you for wearing out many a work-shoe on our behalf.

We love you!!

These work shoes have weathered many a mile

and, if in the kitchen some glares fierce and mean

of which you seem to enjoy as you smile

and reply, "relax honey, they're clean!"

The bread you win I've buttered and packed

Into sandwich-miles so you can eat on the run  (you're known for that)

The muffins I've made for your lunches, when stacked

I dare say could almost touch the sun

The food you carry the is same EVERY week, yes!! (for years)

Bananas and cornflakes, muffins and cheese

Yogurt, fruit,  somersausage sandwiches

Lately you've relented to "take salad, please!"

(p.s. the jif-jar is applesauce, not peanut-butter😊 )

 Happy Birthday Jim, and God bless you, my dear

And keep you safe where many dangers lurk (like moose!! close call this week)

May He keep His hands over yours as you steer

And give you strength to do your work (like cleaning out trailers)

The momentum of moments always startles us somehow

As we constantly marvel at the pace of here and now

Life’s mosaic of days gone by expands, the commonplace

A humbling recollection of God’s faithfulness and grace

Time leaves us at a loss for words where seasons disappear

And in its dexterous demise adds on another year

While we are busy looking after love’s constant demands

With legacy of work worn shoes and labour-weathered hands

We ought to not look back too long, yet long enough to count

The blessings overflowing from an invisible fount

Where fight songs we once flaunted with presumptuous flippancy

Have softened to a much more modest, thankful melody

No matter what our age, there’s always something new to learn

As we begin to bear the brunt of Bygone’s no return

We need to build each other up while we are breaking down

We need to keep on smiling even when we’d rather frown

Because Time waits for no man in its courses we must brave

And much of what has shaped us will follow us to the grave

The ways we’ve become set in too established to undo

Save perhaps this; to say more often these words, I love you

© Janet Martin