Honour-bound...

 As we witness the proof of God's mercy renewed

(aka morning) what frames our first thoughts; faith or fear?

Matt never knows what his mom will say as he heads out the door to work

usually it's 'I hope you have a good day!' or something like it.

This morning for some reason I was moved with the words that inspired today's poem;

"I hope you have a day filled with the honour of serving God"

He replied with his usual morning dialogue of least-words-required "uh-huh" 😊

Doesn't it transform our outlook when honour, not duty drives us?!

I heard this stunning song written in 1855 by Harriet B. Stowe

 for the first time only recently!!

From eastward fringe

Dawn’s faint first tinge

Expands until darkness dissolves

As Unknown wafts

In gleaming lofts

While what is constantly evolves

Involving us

In fret and fuss

Of all that comes along to pass

Where none can will

What time will spill

In heaven-to-earth’s hour-glass

Where fear and dread

Can weigh like lead

If we forget to trust in He

Who knows full well

What time will tell

And when the end of This will be

We are not bound

By sight and sound

As hostages of Duty’s law

But by God’s grace

To human race

We may serve with honour and awe

Recipients of

The greatest love

Mere mortal cannot comprehend

While unknown groans

Where skin and bones

Harbours a deathless dividend

Thus, we press on

Behold the dawn!

That testifies Mercy renewed

As grace imparts

And moves our hearts

To serve with humble gratitude

© Janet Martin

 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;^[a]
    his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Lam.3:22-23  

August Amour

I took my own advice today

Taking my tea (or coffee) into the garden

and hardening my heart against never ending work..for a little😉

 ...until I saw buggy, blighty blooms that needed to be treated.

Oh well! It takes more than that to dampen the delights of August!!

Ah, sun-sweet, spicy scents stir senses; flower-founts spill thrills unchecked

Cricket crescendo commences; vibrato stubble-bedecked

Darling hazy days of summer loll beneath cicada’s drone

While we soak in heat-wavy ripples before gales chill to the bone

How satisfying is the underlying blend of dewy dust

It rouses in the poet’s pen an untamed yen of wonder-lust

While peaches drip and moments slip like diamonds dipped in Commonplace

And we just want to wander longer down lanes lost in Queen Ann’s lace

Oh wow, my, how Now's tug-of-heartstrings gets tangled in hollyhocks

Chicory, zinnia, sunflowers, lavender, dahlias and phlox

For summer’s flower-clock is ticking, stripping petals, purple, pink

Vexing visions of Expectation with Soft Echoes Snared in Ink

Then, drink in the delightful draught of laughter’s August afternoon

Let satisfaction drizzle daydreams like honey from blue-sky spoon

And put off for a winter’s while what summer’s sweep cannot afford

Lounge on a float of green-grass isle where living is its own reward

Be not dismayed at time not stayed by wishful thinking’s drawn-out sigh

Soon August will follow the fading footsteps of blink-wink-July

But take your tea into the garden; harden your heart against work

(Now and then) to hear elves giggle or find fronds where fairies lurk

August amour, you sure do steal the summer heart with rise and fall

Of heavens hugging horizons steeped in arrangements, estival

As we savour your ample samples slo-o-owly lest, alas, we missed

What plunked like plump plums into a mist-basket woven wisp by wisp

© Janet Martin

We, By Ourselves Cannot Love

 “I am the vine, you are the branches. 

He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; 

for without Me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

We watched a much needed rain fall these past few days!

This rain however did not dampen the spirits on the weekend
at our family reunion/Jim's mom's 89th birthday celebration

because love is bigger than weather and such...

(Cake credit to Daughter-in-law Lucille )

Dear Mother,

Through the years in tears and laughter you were there,

 gentle and tough

Teaching us the tender meaning of this four letter word; love

Hard and heavy were the sorrows that you weathered

by God’s grace

Showing us by your example how to shoulder what we face

Through the ups and downs of living you found strength 

for care through prayer

For the taking and the giving that a mother learns to bear

Mother dear, we want to thank you

for all that you are and do

And a birthday is the perfect time to say that we love you

© Janet Martin

Love fills in the gaps that otherwise would gape with want.

Love comes in all shapes and surprises,
often wrapped in disappointment and trouble!

Love is not a solo-sport!
 Love is our solace and support!

And we only find love from God through others.

 How often does getting what Self pined for, fall short of the happiness-mark?!

We alone do not have within us the means to make ourselves happy!
We alone do not have within us, love...

We by ourselves do not possess noble ability

To love; it lacks genuineness of true humility

No matter how good the intention, thought is self-inclined

And often needs God’s intervention to keep motive kind

We, by ourselves will never find true happiness, it lies

Within the hustle-bustle of love’s hellos and goodbyes

It overflows in hearts and eyes as we hold and let go

And grants a glimpse of paradise still scarred with shards of woe

We often overlook the lining in burdens we bear

Or misunderstand the refining that is wrought through care

Where we all need each other to accompany and aid

Us in this sister-brother-father-mother promenade

When life’s sailing is smooth, soon Self becomes careless and cold

And undermines the truth of Who lends all we have and hold

The ties that bind us close both to God and to fellowman

Are woven not with threads we chose but oft by change of plan

A branch cannot bear anything unattached to The Vine

A dead and fruitless withering, ah, this is God’s design

For we by ourselves cannot produce flourishing fields

Love and humility, the fruits only Attachment yields

© Janet Martin

'Wasting' of Self...

 So many forsake/deny/reject faith in God, 

disillusioned by circumstance and feelings...

rather than realizing after His grace and mercy detailed and explained 

in the first 11 chapters of Romans what our response ought to be...

 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,

 in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, 

holy and pleasing to God—

this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1

These pages from the book Building of Character by J.R. Miller

Not in vain, the pain of learning

‘Neath the chisel as He shapes

Hearts agape with hope and yearning

As the artists sculpts and scrapes

Harsh and hard may seem the process

Firm, the Artist wields the knife

As He carves away, with losses

At the fabric of a life

Many with stubborn refusal

Flee His method; present-blind

Never becoming the vessel

That the Artist had in mind

We must let the Master labour

As He chips and strips at pride

Teaching us to love our neighbour

Until we are Self-denied

Until what we once thought worthy

Outside of the Artist’s plan

Lies in waste, as grace and mercy

Shapes a truly godly man

© Janet Martin