The Beautiful Blessing of Family to Love

It is Family Day in Ontario...

We bring out the best or the worst in each other

Through blood-bond (or bondage) of sister and brother

Of father and mother and uncles and aunts

Of Niece-nephew-cousins, and gramma and gramps

A lineage of names, frames and faces are we

Comprising the faction, that we call family

Fabric work of freundschaft, (relatives) of hand-me-down traits

Of stature, demeanor, chins, noses and gaits

Of quirks we don’t notice or question because

That’s just the way our family ‘does’ /was

A birds-of-a-feather Forever are we

By a genetic tether that we call Family

We banter and bicker, share laughter and tears

Because blood is thicker than water or years

We bear a fond bond, whether near or afar

Of a sense of belonging wherever we are

Because what makes ‘us’ transcends geography

Distance cannot sever cords of family

Of father and mother and brother and sis

Precious imperfection and terrible bliss

A beautiful chaos of ancestral ties

Grandpa Joe’s cowlick and Granny’s blue eyes

A come-from-a-long-line-of-proud pedigree

We are and will always be family

We are much more than mere faces in frames

Or leaves on a branch on a tree full of names

We are love-pray-for-and help one another

We are a thank-you God for father, mother

Where no one can take the place of you or me

When it comes to our part in a family

We gather 'round tables, 'round cradles, 'round graves

We celebrate triumphs and weather grief's waves

And wonder, where in God's wide world we would be

Without the dear people we call family 

Where, pray that we never lose humble sight of

The beautiful blessing of family to love

© Janet Martin

My first family

Photo Sept. 2023

Mom and dad and all ten of us...

(Celebrating my parent's 60th wedding anniversary)

My next family

After 35 years of marriage...

photo Nov.2023

Thank-you, Lord

In All That We Achieve...

 Inspired, in part by a paragraph from this book previously mentioned here

In all that we achieve today, however common its demand

If we approach its come-what-may, with willing heart and open hand

And humble consciousness of holy ground beneath each step we take

Aware of how footfalls compound to leave a pathway in its wake

Then we will not forget to ask, ‘Dear God to purify each quest’

And we will find within each task an impetus to do our best

And face each challenge that we meet with more than self- int’rest in mind

Because, a world of little feet, are following not far behind

Where it is up to us to show, without a shadow of a doubt

Through ups and downs of yes-and-no, Who, what we do is all about

So pray, in all that we achieve, as aftermath of pathways wend

In sacred steppingstones we leave/weave, they lead to Heaven in the end

© Janet Martin

Ps.119:105

Your word is a lamp to my feet 

And a light to my path.

Today's part-inspiration!

below continued from above...

I love how the paragraph below is a metaphor for life!

 

On Living In The Moment

Look! morning’s epic entrance thunders with moments we’ve never met...

Because God is without beginning or end,

there will be no end to goodness!

Sometimes I am guilty of forgetting this,

 falling prey to doleful dread, 

believing the good days are over for good 

rather than finding the good in each day,

and thanking God for it by honoring Him with it

 in every way I can!

Ps.31:19 

(click reference link to read the whole glorious Psalm)

How great is Your goodness

which You have laid up for those who fear You,

which You have bestowed before the sons of men

on those who take refuge in You!

I do not want to stare too long at sanguine scenes in Bygone’s glade

Nor covet echoes of a song, much softer now than when first played

Lord, give me ears to hear What Is before its music disappears

Open my eyes so I don’t miss the font that soon fills yesteryears

Beneath the hand of Time harsh sorrows and raw edges smooth, it seems

Washed by a tide, primed with tomorrows, rolling through a world of dreams

Darling, ere you and I awaken on the other side of This

Let’s be sweetly and humbly taken by the melody that is

For, far too soon Bygone’s infinite isle will claim tunes turned to mist

So, let’s not waste one precious minute while today's lyrics untwist  

Look! morning’s epic entrance thunders with moments we’ve never met

Oh, let’s not grow too old to wonder at mercies not tasted yet

© Janet Martin

Oh, let’s not grow too old to wonder at mercies not tasted yet...

Dawn's eyelids were heavy with snow-shadows!

It's been a while since Old Man Winter

 lugged out his white-wash bucket and tipped it over the earth...

I almost have First Snowfall thrills!

Goodness of God

For Oh, So Many Ways We Didn’t Dream (That Love Would Be)

Happy Valentine's Day!!💘

But, as I type this greeting

my heart aches for those who, from our vantagepoint

seem to have their love stories cut short far too soon!

It reminds me to humbly treasure the measure of Today 

and all its opportunities to 'love one another'!

John 13:34
A new commandment I give you:

 Love one another. 

As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.

And so worth every prick of thorn to marvel at the rose...

Love is full of surprises, no matter what age we reach

Always so many new lessons it seems, still left to teach

For Love is a like a tutor, often testing you and me

With oh, so many ways we didn’t dream that love would be

No respecter of rank or race, or ‘reason-right’ retort

Love is patient and kind; all other replies fall far short

Thus, we learn to adjust the dust-scaffold of darling dreams

Because we are all subject to the laws that love esteems

Love is a lifelong (not a once-and-done) ladder we climb

As faithfulness fulfills its calling one step at a time

No easy-out, no masquerade, no detour to the prize

Love vexes Best of Dreamers with Lessons in Compromise

‘I’m sorry, dear, your favorite jeans are laundered but still wet’

‘Honey, why do you toss the keys, who-knows-where, then forget’

And why are we so stubborn in love’s sudden tug-of-wars

Instead of letting love be strong enough to settle scores

There is no finer splendor than love, weathered by its toll

Love, such a tender mender of the wounds of heart and soul

And so worth every effort dressed in plain workaday clothes

And so worth every prick of thorn to marvel at the rose

And so worth every task, that, without love would drive us mad

And so worth every up and down that we have ever had

And so worth every sacrifice, to safeguard vows we made

And recognize the precious bloom of ‘Now’ that soon will fade

Love crowns the commonplace with words like ‘friend’ and ‘family’

It treasures every day rife with fresh opportunity

It does not envy, does not boast, it is not proud or rude

And often reaps an awed reward of humble gratitude

Where, in the aftermath of stumbles we begin to learn

(In the light of God’s mercy,) love is not something we earn

But, because of its Author, love befits us faithfully

For oh, so many ways we didn’t dream that love would be

© Janet Martin

The Vows Scene in the movie

Woman of the  Year

Holds great reminders for all of us

loving/living out our own journeys of 

'for better or worse till death doth part'

Are you wearing red?

Asked Jim when he called this morning...

No. I replied, but I'm wearing fuzzy pink pjs with hearts on them

if that counts for something😂😂😍💗

(You know the ones I mean, ladies, right?!

Completely comfy but not much in the line of attractiveness??)

As we chatted about life's Glorious Ordinary,

plus a few extra ups and downs

today's poem gathered steam!!

As youth sheds its green and then middle-age, its gold

something far more precious

than first meets the eye, 

begins to unfold...

I will try to unearth something red to wear for

a very special dinner tonight,

 (no matter what is served at our kitchen table )

because Jim, most often gone on Valentine's Day,

 is planning to be home tonight!

1 Cor.13

 (My Favourite Love Poem)

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, 

I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, 

and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, 

and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, 

but have not love, I am nothing. 

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, 

and though I give my body [a]to be burned, 

but have not love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love suffers long and is kind; 

love does not envy; 

love does not parade itself, 

is not [b]puffed up; 

5 does not behave rudely, 

does not seek its own, 

is not provoked, [c]thinks no evil; 

6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 

7 bears all things, 

believes all things, 

hopes all things, 

endures all things.

8 Love never fails. 

But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; 

whether there are tongues, they will cease; 

whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 

10 But when that which is [d]perfect has come,

 then that which is in part will be done away.

11 When I was a child,

 I spoke as a child, 

I understood as a child, 

thought as a child; 

but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 

12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, 

but then face to face. 

Now I know in part, 

but then I shall know just as I also am known.

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; 

but the greatest of these 

is love.

Morning (or Afternoon) Minuet

I needed to head out before I got this morning's post up...

Better late than never😅💗

I 'adopted' a bit of Anne of Green Gables' logic this morning

as I headed outdoors for my morning 'commune' with

my Heavenly Father...

In Ontario we are accustomed to white landscapes in February

making this year's gray-blue-bronze panoramas seem sort of surreal! 

The music of a new day starts to play upon the air

Earth emerges from beneath the soft surge of morning-tide

Where something like a greeting hymn and something like a prayer

Erases slumber’s eulogy from waking countryside

Hope’s precedence persuades us to face forward and look up

Where splendor of mercies renewed compels shadows to dim

And bids us by the grace of God, once more to hoist faith’s cup

And trust Him for whatever spills to overflow its brim

Then sing to Him, whose love anoints/appoints each virgin steppingstone 

And bow before the one whose perfect will, will lead the way

And worship He who shepherds us through valleys of Unknown 

And trust the Hand that orchestrates each moment of each day

The music of a new day crescendos and fills the sky 

A little like a lilting celestial serenade

Or like a welkin minuet that kindles love's reply

With raised voices, to rejoice in this day the Lord has made 

© Janet Martin

Psalm 5:3

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; 

In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.

Psalm 59:16
But I will sing of Your strength 

and proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning.

 For You are my fortress, 

my refuge in times of trouble.

I Will Wait For You

Lamentations 3:22-23

English Standard Version

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[a]

his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

Dear Henry Van Dyke (and a few other rare old writers/poets)

Books that touch me/move me as often and deeply as the one below

are far and few between!

Thank-you Henry!

You are my friend though you were gone long before I was born

And we have never met, save in words penned in days of yorn

You move me still, where once your quill traversed a barren page

To leave behind kind fellowship for folk of future age

To touch us in those places time cannot affect, it seems

No matter how it chases generations through its schemes/dreams

I love you, though to tell you is a joy deferred and weighed

In a balance that tips toward a door none can evade

Till then I'll taste thy turn of phrase with slow and sheer amour

To think that ink can keep alive what death cannot devour

To touch us with affections Time cannot thwart by its toll

As you arouse reflections in rivers poured from your soul

You make me smile and weep and laugh and sigh in sweet surprise

You steal my breath; earth moves beneath its motionless disguise

Oh, how I wish that I could shake the hand that shaped the thought

That gently cheers an afternoon, soon otherwise forgot

You touch me as if we were just a fireside apart

Sharing a glimpse of heaven as we commune, heart to heart

© Janet Martin

Below are a few examples why I love this writer so much!

But Thanks Be To God (From We, Beneficiaries of Love's Great Sacrifice)

Romans 6:15-23NIV

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!

16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves,

you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death,

or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin,

you have come to obey from your heart

the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.

18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations.

Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness,

so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.

21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?

Those things result in death!

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God,

the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Don't you love how a familiar passage of scripture

can impact us anew with profound wonder?!!

Such is the case, as the above passage inspired today's Thanksgiving Hymn

Love transforms perspective ...

...until nothing is ordinary 

... and everything is sacred!

‘But great thanks be to God’ from we, once sorry slaves to sin

From we who benefit from He who paid the debt we owed

From we, washed clean and purged of guilt’s vile residue within

From we once without hope and God, till He, his grace bestowed

‘But glad thanks be to God’ from we, now slaves to righteousness

From we who have believed and obey, not through force, but love

From we who are awed heirs of God’s unfailing promises

Where sin no longer reigns that we obey its lusts thereof

‘But meek thanks be to God’ from we who are saved from sin’s wage

By love’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

The Hand, once pierced with nails will part death’s sea where demons rage

And lead us through on dry ground to faith’s infinite reward

‘But sweet thanks be to God’ who spares us from hell’s dreadful rue

Because He did not spare Himself to suffer pardon’s price

But purchased our redemption as sin’s curse He overthrew

So we could reap the benefit of Love’s Great Sacrifice

© Janet Martin

When we believe in God we obey, perhaps, through 

a sense of pious obligation.

But oh! when we love God we, as v. 17 describes it;

'we come to obey from our hearts

the pattern of teaching that has claimed our allegiance!'

(because )

v. 18. 'we have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness'

May this be our prayer, that we would ever yearn to love our Saviour more!

More Love to Thee

Be The Good

Today I had the pleasure of working with good friends at a church event.

The inspiration for today's poem, however, started a few days ago...

Here's to being 'the good' we like to find/meet!

The other day as I sat on the deck I overheard

an experienced electrician patiently coaching an apprentice.

The apprentice was impatient to know how he can get to making

much more (dollars) an hour than he was currently being paid.

And I smiled to hear Experience's answer

"it takes time before you can make that kind of money.

You need to put in a lot of electrical hours to get there"

Good advice to someone who will hopefully take it to heart

and become the good help that seems hard to find these days

but who rely on good coaches/teachers!

..."the reason I like working with you" I heard the apprentice continue, 

as his Teacher invited him to ride up in the boom for a lesson,  

"is because at the other place I just did the same thing over and over."

Be the good help that is so hard to find

Be the good coach that keeps learning in mind

Be the good fellowman, patient and kind

Be the good salt of the earth

Be the good we wish there would be more of;

A good example of mercy and love

Be the good nature when push comes to shove

Fill common hours with worth

Be the good treasure we measure in friends

Be the good neighbor that willingly lends

Be a good steward with whatever life sends

Be the good we all applaud

The good that makes bad days better to bear

Be the good listener some sorrow to share

Be the good soldier that shoulders love’s care

All for the glory of God

© Janet Martin

1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink 

 whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.