Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts

Monday, June 26, 2023

Gratitude-Quest...



Sometimes love's realities/cruelties/crosses
could wake excuses that could make us bitter...
Oh my Lord, may it never be!!





Lest by bitterness betaken
Lest by prideful boast or greed
Lord, each day let me awaken
To Your mercy for my need
Lest in my pursuits of gladness
I, by reason of a fool
Miss Your goodness, for the madness
Of Want without rod or rule

Lest I trade eternal treasure
And the blessing You bestow
For the very temp’ral pleasure
Of a temporary show
Lord, each day let me awaken
To renewed awareness of
Hope’s sweet confidence unshaken
Anchored in grace, truth, and love

Lest, by my impatient nature
I demand what is not mine
Puffing up my puny stature
In the face of Grace Divine
Lest, by some distorted notion
I perceive rather than trust
And redirect my devotion
From You to idols/merchants of dust

Lest the lure of the beholding
Blinds me to Faith’s surety
Lest the pace of grace unfolding
Heaven, is too hard for me
Lord, each day let me awaken
So that I am overtaken
With nothing, but gratitude

© Janet Martin

Psalm 107:15&31

Oh, that men would give thanks
 to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works
 to the children of men!



Monday, May 1, 2023

Such is Perhaps

I've come to the conclusion that love and life
are a fine mingling of disappointment and delight!


Torrential down-pours to and from Pennsylvania
 hampered/dampened what would have been even more spectacular views,
on our weekend getaway to attend our nephew's wedding!


Dodging the timing of the wipers to capture the *perfect shot became a bit of a game...
*(I quickly gave up on 'perfect' and simply hoped for a few unblurry shots)😅


But Saturday was less wet than forecasted 
so we didn't get drenched in the morning while doing touristy things
 nor in the afternoon did guests get drenched. 
The wedding was beautiful!


This beautiful couple have already been through some deeply refining disappointments
requiring dream-rearranging...(shot blurred for privacy sake)


Weather-disappointments are a part of life and overall
rather small on the scale of disappointments!
And God's handiwork is stunning, even in the rain!
(both literally and metaphorically)



Sometimes dreams don't turn out how we imagine/anticipate!
But if we place our dreams into God's hands
 perhaps, no, surely He will use the disappointment
to deepen our awareness and appreciation for
the myriad of mercies we are showered with daily! 







Dreamworlds collapse; Such is ‘perhaps’
…perhaps life’s bitter-sweetest means
Of teaching us to hope and trust
In more than destiny of dreams

Perhaps to help us hone the heart
To kinder, meeker give-and-take
Because we know the stinging smart
That ‘perhaps’ can leave in its wake

...to make us more aware of how
We wield the onus of replies
Where perhaps ‘perhaps’ is the ‘wow’
Still wearing broken-dream disguise

...while we weather warpaths of wish
Vexed by detours, potholes, barred gates
Perhaps we should remember this;
 Perhaps something far better waits

© Janet Martin



Life's disappointments develop and test
the mettle of our character.
Everyone is hunky-dory when life goes the way we like, right?
When it doesn't...ah! what then?!

1 Thess.5:18
...in everything give thanks; 
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

A lot of our deepest disappointments are only fully witnessed
by He who truly loves and cares!
Thank-you, faithful Heavenly Father🙏




Saturday, June 26, 2021

Facing Life' s Biggest Challenge; Love...


Life is full of test and disappointment,
frustration and disagreement,
but never justifies our rebellion to
the Giver of all we have...

So much more than meets the eye
is in the bud of bloom...

...in bud of day

in the bud of youth

Beloved, let us love one another, 
for love is of God;...
1 John 4:7

Let’s count our blessings, not our woes
Let’s love in spite of how life goes
For what good is all else we claim
If we put charity to shame
Let’s make the most of moment-gold
Poured, tick by tock into a mold
That we can never modify
No matter how hard we may try
Let’s live the first, Greatest Command
With humble heart and helping hand
Let’s pray while we traverse earth’s sod
And leave the details up to God

© Janet Martin

Luke 6:32-36
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? 
Even sinners love those who love them. 
 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? 
Even sinners do that. 
 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? 
Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 
 But love your enemies, do good to them, 
and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. 
Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, 
because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 
 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.


A Call To Persevere...Jude 18-21

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 
 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers 
who will follow their own ungodly desires.”  
These are the people who divide you, 
who follow mere natural instincts 
and do not have the Spirit.
 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith 
and praying in the Holy Spirit,  
keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ 
to bring you to eternal life.

 

Saturday, August 17, 2019

To Do Or Not To Do...


  We can not truly qualify 
until we feel unqualified




The mastermind of weak excuse
Can always find fine reasons to
Think someone else could better fill
The shoes needed to walk uphill

…and as far as that other task
Surely there’s someone else to ask
Rather than bother 'poor old me'
Not eloquent as he or she

Ah, surely God can understand
Why I decline to lend a hand
Or take a flying leap of trust
Because I hate the taste of dust

Don’t think too ill of me, I plead
If I’m not fit to fill this need
Forgive me if I seem to prove
A lack of faith, goodness or love

I never was as fit as they
Who seem equipped for come-what-may
So please, choose one more qualified
I hate the sting of injured pride

Then deep within I hear a voice
Child, I am not pleased with your choice
For only when you yield your heart
Can I become the greater part

Unless you swallow fear and pride
You will remain unqualified
Until you recognize your need
My grace can never intercede

© Janet Martin

It's hard to choose only a few verses out of such a great story as that of Moses!
Ex.4:10-13
 (click the link for the whole passage!)
  Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, 
neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant.
 I am slow of speech and tongue.”

 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? 
Who makes them deaf or mute? 
Who gives them sight or makes them blind? 
Is it not I, the Lord?  
 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”...

To Be or Not To Be... Vanilla



 I hereby testify that on this date of August 17, 2019
my (truck-driver) husband (in case you wonder why he calls) did call 
and not need to ask at all 
what I was doing (because he could guess)
because nine mornings out of ten I write...
and he did state that 
I am a different cat 
but he wouldn't change a thing 
or I would 'just be vanilla'.
I then thereby did respond that I will put his statement in writing 
as evidence that he did
on this day declare such a thing
and that I will bring it to his remembrance at such a time
when his opinion could justifiably differ!😊😂😜
...okay, enough silliness!

Here's to today's flavours and colours!
The first one I choose is coffee black!



To love or hate
Condemn, applaud
To trust in fate
Or gracious God

To pray a while
Or fret and fear
To sing and smile
Or shed a tear

To dash or stroll
Believe or doubt
Give half or whole
Give thanks or pout

To bless or curse
Deny, confess
For better-worse
For more or less

To be yourself
Or to compare
To dust the shelf
Or sit and stare

To stray or veer
Or stay the course
To crush or cheer
To free or force

To gripe or dance
With gratitude
Part circumstance
Most attitude

© Janet Martin

Saturday, May 25, 2019

Oh, This Is Not It


...and the little lad's eyes sparkled with delight as we talked about how 
he will be the only 'he' and me the only 'me' ever, 
in the whole wide world 
and doesn't that just make us want to be our best 'we'
...the only one that will ever be! 


All this said, sometimes its hard to keep our chins up
when trust and patience is tried...
Lots of crops out but I'm sure still lots not!
We got the whole garden planted (except flowers) last night in barely dry soil
But last night's dreamland is this morning's lake😒



Ah, this is me and you
In this; the day God made
To make the most of say and do
No matter what the shade
Of heaven’s backdrop is
Where Mercy’s blessings pour
Through gold or gray to that and This
And we should not ignore
The One who metes the means
To get from here to There
Where this is it; one you, one me
One life; then who would dare
To take this day that Is
And utter curses, oh
When our lone, true boast is this;
His grace whereby we go
To where no one returns
To regale us a bit
With more than ashes in an urn
 For oh, This is not it

© Janet Martin