Better Examples

PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase "Better (blank),"

replace the blank with a new word or phrase,

make the new phrase the title of your poem,

and then, write your poem...

Children are imitators of Example...

As soon as Big Brother clapped, so did Little Brother...

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children,

Eph.5:1(NIV)

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

Eph.1:5 (NKJV)

The only hope we have of improving what waits to be

Is a better Example set by likes of you and me

Therefore, the likes of you and me ought to pay earnest heed

To what and who influences power of word and deed

Because it is our words and deeds that set the sacred sway

For those who follow in the footsteps that we leave Today

For what we leave today is not as fleeting as it seems

But sets the stage where morrow's wage of today's onus teems

With the after-effects of who we strive to imitate

Subject either to laws of love or lawlessness of hate

Then, there is only one solution that passes the test;

To be better examples is to imitate The Best

Anything less is but our children's futures sacrificed

Our only hope, the perfect Example of Jesus Christ

© Janet Martin

Phil.2:5-11

(Isaiah 52:13–15)

5Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus:

6Who, existing in the form of God,

did not consider equality with God

something to be grasped,a

7but emptied Himself,

taking the form of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

8And being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross.

9Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place

and gave Him the name above all names,

10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Rom.13:8-10

Owe no one anything except to love one another, 

for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,”

 “You shall not murder,”

 “You shall not steal,” [a]

“You shall not bear false witness,”

 “You shall not covet,” 

and if there is any other commandment, 

are all summed up in this saying, namely,

 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

10 Love does no harm to a neighbor;

 therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Better Reason

PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase

"Better (blank)," replace the blank with a new word or phrase,

make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem.

Better critique better, Reason's Sleek Begetter

So eager to charm and entice

Desire's effulgence with instant indulgence

Better to first ponder the price

And weigh velvet voices that prey on quick choices

And trick us to trade truth for lies

Better, first to measure the worth of the treasure

And cost of the pleasure we prize

Because oft desire can be a soft liar

If we heed no Higher Decree

Than gratification of infatuation's

Accommodating fantasy

Better to look better where seduction's fetter

Is not always easy to spot

Better to fight battles before Fool's Proof tattles

On Reason's Begetter of Thought

To weigh the approach of a 'promise'-drawn coach

Where knights in shining armor plead

To study the path and the long aftermath

(of) Where Yielding to Impulse may lead...

...better to pray before we leap

Into the fray of Whim

Better to ask the Lord to keep

Thought's pleasure stayed on Him 

© Janet Martin

Today's devotion...

...from this book!

Or, So It Seemed to the Dreamer...

 PAD Challenge, day 2: For today’s prompt, write a childhood object poem. 

up and away

undefined 

by time and place

brushing perimeters of space

or so it seemed 

to the dreamer, 

then

with honey-colored braids

and an insatiable

 yen

that turned out to be

the cocoon that cradled

 Poetry...

On that rope swing

 she would try

to touch the sky

...the monotony of

an endless July 

afternoon

no match for the butterfly

inside the

 cocoon...

Janet~

Celebration-Declaration or Celebration of Life

 PAD Challenge day 1: For today’s prompt, write a declaration poem. 

(I clicked on the Writer's Digest Chapbook Challenge every morning

but simply could not carve out the freedom to join...

Trying a few of the challenges here this morning!

BTW, everyone is welcome to join in the poeming fun

 at Writer's Digest poem-a-day challenge all through November!)

Yesterday morning a friend dropped by with some

homemade soup she made with some kale I had given her

the week before!

Such a sweet surprise seemed perfect for sharing so

I packed up an impromptu picnic lunch and visited my mother-in-law!

I told her our lunch was a group-effort/blessing...

Pears from my sister Lucy, soup from my friend Elaine

and Apple Bread baked by my daughter Victoria!

We had a most precious afternoon so

completely unplanned!

So today I call a celebration-declaration

for all un-expectation waiting to turn to joy!

I call a celebration-declaration for Today

A kind determination of joy-expectation when

We purpose to be kinder, and humbly thankful; to pray

And thank God for the mercy's that He renews once again

To thank Him for blessings that we too oft under-esteem 

Loved ones within arms reach; those never out of reach of prayer

To praise Him for His goodness no matter how bad things seem

To know that He is able, as we cast on Him our care 

To look a little closer at what we call Commonplace

And then to realize it is not common after all

But rather, celebration-worthy measures of God's grace

Each task a sacred mission as we heed love's creature-call 

...and suddenly sweet wonder steals our breath with gratitude

For favors humbly noted, that we overlooked before

A celebration-declaration for Regard renewed

As we reply with prayer, especially for countries at war

 💔😢🙏

Janet Martin~

I also received a very special love-created thank-you card from Elaine...

Let's make today our thank-you card to God!

November-Frames

Stark silhouettes etched on backdrops of hasting dusk and tardy dawn...

 Joy-grief relief of gardens shucked, and turned and tucked beneath the sky...

(next year my make-shift grape-arbor needs a serious upgrade!!)😅

Still, stubbled sweeps of harvests reaped and gathered into bins and barns...

The morning-tide, a soundless sea that bathes the still-life lea with bronze...

Stark silhouettes etched on backdrops of hasting dusk and tardy dawn

Joy-grief relief of gardens shucked, and turned and tucked beneath the sky

The heart, a little like a cart by steads of fondest farewells drawn

The wind, a brisk custodian that whisks the brittle leaves awry

Still, stubbled sweeps of harvests reaped and gathered into bins and barns

The morning-tide, a soundless sea that bathes the still-life lea with bronze

The sudden, sweet tweet-tweet greeting as long-gone feathered friends return

The brooding tent of heavens bent with imminence of frosty fronds

The gaping gate where wonders wait to stun our gaze with grays and browns

Before the first soft snowflakes waft earthward from welkin worlds above

The beauty of spartan landscapes, of nature’s threadbare capes and gowns

Duty’s breath-stealing tasks, as thankfulness basks in God’s love

Brigadoon of November Noon, funereal fallow-hallowed hush

Fruit and root cellar shelves and floors festooned with toil and mercy’s toll

A heart-string unpreparedly snared on a crab-apple-dappled bush

The swing, bereft of barefoot child, a Masterpiece of Childhood’s Soul

Happiness dons kerchiefs and caps; laughter sounds small in fall’s ballroom

Each breath emits a puff of cloud, a bit like engines of a train

In ruddy cheeks and noses November’s kissable roses bloom

As leaves are raked and piled, and the child in each of us wakes again

Twilight’s twinkling front porch lights cheer work-weary streams of traffic home

Luxury is a cup of tea, a good book nook, and knitted shawl

And life is like the savoring of surprise flavours in a poem

Because November sometimes seems to be The Fairest of Them All

© Janet Martin

As we raked and heaped pile after pile of leaves at my parent's place

, we three children of yesterday (my brother, his wife and me)

 couldn't resist a a flying leap and romp because

something about leaf-piles wakes the child in us all.

A heart-string unpreparedly snared on a crab-apple-dappled bush...

Sheer Veneer

Is the haste of a season sometimes almost more than you can bear too?

Tonight we lingered, sipping rich, black espresso in the crisp, gold dusk...

Time’s fabric is so sheer

Like mist-embellished gauze

That gathers up laughter and tears

Into the year that was

How easily it slips

Through fingertips and sighs

Like poetry of eyes and lips

Of hellos and goodbyes

Futile to linger where

The daylight disappears

Beneath a shawl of dark blue air

Un-weathered by the years

How swiftly seasons waft

Like silver thistledown

Above the quiet woodland doffed

Of spring-to-autumn’s crown

We reach but cannot trace

The thread that weaves the year

As season-stitches interlace

Time’s fabric remains sheer

Let's savor its sheer bliss

With love's sheer appetite 

And let the sheer wonder of This

Fill us with sheer delight

© Janet Martin

Worth Every Tender Mercy

God is not who we imagine Him to be.

God is who He says He is in His Word.

God's Word is not filled with suggestions of how to live

but sacred commandments.

 God, through the prophet Jeremiah, has repeated, dire warnings for

all 'who walk after the imaginations of their hearts'

To live, to love and do our part

With strength and mind, to serve the Lord

Is no charge for the faint of heart

Or those impatient for reward

For oftentimes, what seems so small

On the grand scale of recompense

Is not what it appears at all

When trust chooses obedience

Rather than the darling appeal

Of ‘happiness’ that money buys

No glamorous façade, the zeal

That presses to the Greater Prize

…God has prepared for the Blest Meek

Who look beyond the god/laud of Self

To heed the commandment to seek

God’s kingdom first, not worldly pelf

Who loathe the cunning Tempter bent

On preening false illusion’s sway/prey

With logic’s soothing argument

To woo with ‘did God really say?’

Who earnestly guard heart and mind

Where Imagination deceives

The proud with promised lands that blind

With sight, what faith alone perceives

Where the recompense of reward

Is not yet, but someday will be

Worth every (secret) tender mercy poured

Into vaults of eternity

© Janet Martin

Pride is a great enemy to obedience

And quite the cunning foe!

Pride comes in so many forms...

last month our church participated in a fund-raised

meal-pack through Lifeline.

When donating online, the default-setting for donations

is to publicly display the donation amount (why??)

Mortified, I realized too late, after a few corrections

that my 'private' setting had switched back to 'public'!

I contacted Lifeline to please switch it to 'private'

but I think they had more pressing concerns😅🙏

(and it was very hard on my 'pride' to simply let it go)

Pride is such a stinker and humility SO hard to get;

the minute we think we have it we've lost it!!😂

Jesus taught us to give like this...

Matt.6:4

But when you give to the needy, 

do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

 4so that your giving may be in secret. 

And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 5

Preciously Aware...

 Happy November!

Today's is my mom's birthday!

Our annual daughter and daughter-in-law's tea-party

is planned for next week because today she is celebrating with her sisters!

A very precious awareness of Each Other growing dearer

with each passing year!

A reminder for each of us to be preciously aware of Each Other! 

Time’s wheel of hopes and dreams and cares and prayers spins round and round

The hill where morrow’s stairway gleams at daybreak runs aground

And if we are not careful, we could miss what is today

While gazing at a stair full of mist-vendors far away

For, what is on display, both groaned and grinned, soon disappears

Like autumn leaves, chased by the wind, to pathless yesteryears

The physique of a wish is always just beyond our reach

And often we fail to critique the longings we beseech

Fixating on one point because it seems, to raptured sighs

To be want-worthy, while its flaws are lost in starry eyes

Until wisdom esteems that sage advice from days of yore

‘Not all is as it seems, then be careful what you wish for’

As time goes by, I want for less, yet covet more, a heart

Of humbler thankfulness for what God’s kind mercies impart

I want to be determined, in love’s hold and letting go

To keep one ear tuned to a wind that always steals the show

Then not to mourn the past or fret at what ‘yet’ holds at bay

But to be preciously aware of what Time grants today

© Janet Martin

James 4:15

Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”