A wee one picked a pretty flower
and gave it to her Mom.
Everyone around her smiled with joy.
She grew older and was taught
a dandelion was “just a weed”
but did the flower really change
when the eyes of her heart
were closed?
She grew up
and made them into
such delicious wine!
How eye opening!
By Martha L Shaw – © 2015
Comments Off on CREATED WITH A SPECIAL PURPOSE! | 
inspirational | Tagged: beauty, childlike, children, creation, faith, FLOWER, love, nature, perspective, poetry, purpose, Spirituality, WEED | 
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Posted by Martha L Shaw
The gleaming sunrays
just like silly little elves
scamper in the breeze!
By Martha L Shaw © 2015
Comments Off on Dance of Joy | inspirational | Tagged: celebrate, childlike, faith, haiku, joy, joy of the Lord, peace, poetry, shine, Spirituality, spring, sunday | Permalink
Posted by Martha L Shaw
When I was a child,
it did not really matter
that the carrot I pulled from the ground to eat
still had soil on it,
nor that I’d wiped the rest on my shirt.
The choice, there was none . . .
Focus on the carrot or on the dirt?
CRUNCH!
By Martha L Shaw – © 2017
2 Comments | inspirational | Tagged: childhood, childlike, encouragement, faith, Garden, GRAC, INNOCENCE, motivation, nature, priorities, trust | Permalink
Posted by Martha L Shaw
When I was very small I had a green blanket on my bed. To anyone but me, it was nothing special at all. After I had it for a while, it was full of holes, but Mama knew not to replace it. As I tried to sleep at night, I would suck my fingers on one hand and hold my green blanket with the other, all the while rubbing the fuzz with my fingers.
Poor Mama must have constantly swept my bedroom floor of all the fuzz and my special blanket was surely less warm than it had been . . . to Mama. Not to me, for my heart was reminded of how much I was loved and how safe I was simply by being wrapped in it.
The blanket was not magic and Mama, though neither she nor I could truly know my heart, left it with me until I outgrew it. I know now, but not then, that there is just one source for the love I felt and that God is the source. He was also the one who knew my heart then as now. I am older now and do not need the blanket, but the little girl I was still lives inside me and she STILL feels blanketed in Abba’s love.
4 Comments | inspirational | Tagged: Abba, agape, BLANKET, challenge, childlike, daily post, God, love, photography, Spirituality | Permalink
Posted by Martha L Shaw
Depending on your faith or denomination, this might not be completely familiar, but ,I was thinking of Mom at church yesterday and recalled her telling me that as a tiny girl she would march around the house holding an upside down broom and pretend to be the crucifer at church.
So, later in the service, as we sung the Doxology and got to the words “praise Him all creatures here below” I remembered myself as a wee one singing the same words with one tiny mistake. I misunderstood and heard them say “preacher” rather than “creature” AND GOT MAD! I decided they were NOT going to tell me only PREACHERS could praise Him. I WAS GOING TO AS WELL! lol
It should not surprise anyone that both of us have, in our own ways, felt called to forms of ministry from a very young age.
3 Comments | inspirational | Tagged: child, child raising, childhood, childlike, Christianity, culture, encouragement, faith, family, growing up, Jesus, learning, love, Spirituality, sunday, Sunday school | Permalink
Posted by Martha L Shaw
When I was a child, I loved laying in the grass looking up at the sky . . . I thought of who else, in some distant place, might be sharing it with me. Birds flew about tweeting and I wondered what they said.. When clouds came in, I thought not of potential storms but of the interesting shapes . . . “that one looks like a bear!” Even when it rained, I loved watching the droplets bounce off surfaces looking like tiny mirrors reflecting a world that fascinated me.
Clouds over my head
Whisper opportunity
Gentle wisps of change
By Martha L Shaw – © 2015
Comments Off on DO YOU SEE SILVER LININGS? I DO! | inspirational | Tagged: art, blessings, childlike, faith, grace, gratitude, haiku, innocense, nature, neighbors, poetry, Spirituality, thankful | Permalink
Posted by Martha L Shaw
Wee one,
as I look into your eyes
I hunger to see the world through them
as I once did!
I can almost feel
the long forgotten magic!
By Martha L Shaw ©2015
3 Comments | inspirational | Tagged: child, childlike, children, creation, Faith, joy, learn, motivation, poems, poetry, Spirituality | Permalink
Posted by Martha L Shaw
Comments Off on DON’T BE FOOLED BY OOPS! | inspirational | Tagged: chance, childhood, childlike, children, Christianity, daily post, encouragement, Faith, hope, Inspiration, inspirational, Jesus, jump, lifestyle, love, motivation, nature, opportunity, photography, poetry, risk, Spirituality, trust | Permalink
Posted by Martha L Shaw
Rain gently, heavily
falling like grace from above
Parched souls, parched land fed
By Martha L Shaw – © 7–16-2015
Comments Off on GIGGLING AS I JUMP IN PUDDLES ;-) | inspirational | Tagged: childlike, encouragement, Faith, haiku, Inspiration, joy, nature, poetry, Spirituality | Permalink
Posted by Martha L Shaw
If these were leaves
And I was five again,
I would leap into the air,
Land in a giggling heap of joy,
Then raise my arms in gleeful abandon
And do it all over again!
I just might anyway!
By Martha L Shaw – ©7-2-2014
Matthew 18:3New International Version (NIV)
3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 Comments | inspirational | Tagged: childlike, encouragement, Faith, Jesus, lifestyle, nature, photography, poetry, Spirituality | Permalink
Posted by Martha L Shaw
Martha L Shaw, Author
Martha L Shaw - Poet, Writer, Author, Artist 