Poems and Bible Verses
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Prayers for keeping on
Daily Bath
Speak in haste -- Repent at leisure
Hug me? Yes. Smother me? NO!
Warts, f_ _ts, and all!
Not everyone has a *Happy* New Year
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Prayers for keeping
on
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Let me do my work each day;
And if the darkened hours of despair overcome me,
May I not forget the Strength that comforted me
In the desolation of other times.
May I still remember the bright hours that
found me
Walking over the silent hills of my childhood,
Or dreaming on the margins of the quiet river,
When a Light glowed within me,
And I promised my early God to have courage
Amid the tempests of the changing years.
Spare me from bitterness
And from the sharp passions of unguarded moments.
May I not forget that poverty and riches are of the spirit.
Though the world know me not,
May my thoughts and actions be such
As shall keep me friendly with myself.
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Lift my eyes from the earth,
And let me not forget the uses of the stars.
Forbid that I should judge others,
Lest I condemn myself.
Let me not follow the clamor of the world,
But walk calmly in my path.
Give me a few friends who will love me for
what I am;
And keep ever burning before my vagrant steps
The kindly light of Hope.
And though age and infirmity overtake me,
And I come not within sight of the castle of my dreams,
Teach me still to be thankful for life,
And for time's olden memories that are good and sweet;
And may the evening twilight find me gentle still.
"A Prayer" by Max Ehrmann
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You, LORD, are all I want!
You are my choice, and you keep me safe.
You make my life pleasant, and my future is bright.
I praise you, LORD, for being my guide.
Even in the darkest night, your teachings fill my mind.
I will always look to you, as you stand beside
me and protect me from fear.
With all my heart, I will celebrate.
In You I can safely rest.
Psalm 16.5-9
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I am not complaining about having too little.
I have learned to be satisfied with whatever I have.
I know what it is to be poor or to have plenty,
And I have lived under all kinds of conditions.
I know what it means to be full or to be
hungry,
To have too much or too little.
Christ gives me the strength to face anything!
Philippians 4.11-13
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Daily Bath
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If I have wounded any soul today,
If I have caused one foot to go astray,
If I have walked in my own wilful way --
Good Lord, forgive!
If I have uttered idle words or vain,
If I have turned aside from want or pain,
Lest I myself should suffer through the strain --
Good Lord, forgive!
If I have craved for joys that are not mine,
If I have let my wayward heart repine,
Dwelling on things of earth, not things divine --
Good Lord, forgive!
If I have been perverse, or hard, or cold,
If I have longed for shelter in Thy fold,
When Thou hast given me some part to hold --
Good Lord, forgive!
Forgive the sins I have confessed to Thee,
Forgive the secret sins I do not see,
That which I know not, Father, teach Thou me --
Help me to live.
"My Evening Prayer" by Charles H Gabriel
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Be gracious to me, O God,
According to Thy lovingkindness.
According to the greatness of Thy compassion,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned,
And done what is evil in Thy sight,
So that Thou art justified when Thou dost speak,
And blameless when Thou dost judge.
Psalm 51.1b-4
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Speak in haste -- Repent
at leisure
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If I had known in the morning
How wearily all the day
The words unkind would trouble my mind
That I said when you went away,
I had been more careful, darling,
Nor given you needless pain;
But we vex our own with look and tone
We may never take back again.
For though in the quiet evening
You may give me the kiss of peace,
Yet it well might be that never for me
The pain of the heart should cease!
continued =>
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How many go forth at morning
Who never come home at night!
And hearts have broken for harsh words spoken
That sorrow can ne'er set right.
We have careful thought for the stranger,
And smiles for the sometime guest;
But oft for "our own" the bitter tone,
Though we love our own the best.
Ah! lips with the curve impatient,
Ah! brow with the shade of scorn,
' Twere a cruel fate, were the night too late
To undo the work of the morn!
"Our Own" by Margaret Sangster
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Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts
great things.
See how great a forest a little fire kindles!
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.
The tongue is so set among our members that it
defiles the whole body,
And sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.
For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and
creature of the sea,
Is tamed and has been tamed by mankind.
But no man can tame the tongue.
It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
With it we bless our God and Father,
And with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.
Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing.
My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
James 3.5-10
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Hug me? Yes. Smother
me? NO!
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Last night my friend -- he says he is
my friend --
Came in and questioned me. "I hear it said
You have done this and that. I come to ask
Are these things true?" A glint was in his eye
Of small distrust. His words were crisp and hot.
He measured me with anger, and flung down
A little heap of facts had come to him.
"I
hear it said you have done this and that."
Suppose I have? And are you not my friend?
And are you not my friend enough to say,
"If
it were true, there would be reason in it.
And if I cannot know the how and why,
Still I can trust you, waiting for a word,
Or for no word, if no word ever come!"
Is friendship just a thing of afternoons,
Of pleasuring one's friend and one's dear self --
Greed for sedate approval of his pace,
continued ==>
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Suspicion if he take one little turn
Upon the road, one flight into the air,
And has not sought you for your Yea or Nay!
No. Friendship is not so. I am my own.
And howsoever near my friend may draw
Unto my soul, there is a legend hung
Above a certain straight and narrow way
Says, "Dear
my friend, ye may not enter here!"
I would the time has come -- as it has not --
When men shall rise and say, "He is my friend.
He has done this? And what is that to me!
Think you I have a check upon his head,
Or cast a guiding rein across his neck?
I am his friend. And for that cause I walk
Not overclose beside him, leaving still
Space for his silences, and space for mine."
"I Hear It Said" by Barbara Young
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Brethren, if a man is overtaken in a fault,
You who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness,
Considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the
law of Christ.
If anyone thinks himself to be something, when
he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Let each one examine his own work,
And then he will have rejoicing in himself alone,
And not in another.
For each one shall bear his own load.
Gal 6.1-5
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Warts, f_ _ts, and
all!
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He may be six kinds of a liar,
He may be ten kinds of a fool,
He may be a wicked highflyer
Beyond any reason or rule;
There may be a shadow above him
Of ruin and woes to impend
And I may not respect, but I love him,
Because -- well, because he's my friend.
I know he has faults by the billion,
But his faults are a portion of him;
I know that his record's vermillion,
And he's far from the sweet Seraphim;
Continued==>
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But he's always been square with yours
truly,
Ready to give or to lend,
And if he is wild and unruly,
I like him -- because he's my friend.
I criticize him but I do it
In just a frank, comradely key,
And back-biting gossips will rue it
If ever they knock him to me!
I never make diagrams of him,
No maps of his soul have I penned;
I don't analyze -- I just love him.
Because -- well, because he's my friend.
"Loyalty" by Berton Braley
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A friend loves at all times,
And a brother is born for adversity.
Prov 17.17
Above all things have fervent love for one another,
For love will cover a multitude of sins.
1 Pet 4.8
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Remember...
Not everyone has a *Happy* New Year
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Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your
flight,
Make me a child again just for tonight!
Mother, come back from the echoless shore,
Take me again to your heart as of yore;
Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,
Smoothe the few silver threads out of my hair;
Over my slumbers your loving watch keep --
Rock me to sleep, mother -- rock me to sleep!
Backward, flow backward, O tide of the
years!
I am so weary of toil and of tears --
Toil without recompense, tears all in vain --
Take them and give me my childhood again!
I have grown weary of dust and decay,
Weary of flinging my soul-wealth away,
Weary of sowing for others to reap --
Rock me to sleep, mother -- rock me to sleep!
Continued ==>
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Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,
Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you!
Many a summer the grass has grown green,
Blossomed and faded, our faces between;
Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain,
Long I tonight for your presence again;
Come from the silence so long and so deep --
Rock me to sleep, mother -- rock me to sleep!
Mother, dear mother, the years have been
long
Since I last listened your lullaby song;
Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem
Womanhood's years have been only a dream.
Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace,
With your light lashes just sweeping my face,
Never hereafter to wake or to weep --
Rock me to sleep, mother -- rock me to sleep!
"Rock Me to Sleep" by Elizabeth Akers Allen
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My tears have been my food day and night,
While they continually say to me, "Where is your God?"
O my God, my soul is cast down within me!
Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls.
All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in
the daytime,
And in the night His song shall be with me -- a prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42.3,6a,7-8
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