Vows and Verses

Fifty years is really not enough
In which to plumb the depths of someone's soul.
Fifty more years, then, should be the goal:
To know the beauty of another's love,
Yearnings shape, and life-long shadows buff.

Yet life was never easy in those years.
Everest is sometimes hard to climb.
A will to love has brought you to this time,
Rich in joys that time cannot remove.
So may this day be filled with happy tears!

For some the years turn out to be a blessing:
In life and love the choices of the heart
Find their way to lushly colored meadows
Touched at night by fantasies of stars.
Yearnings sway like dancers in the wind.

You have learned the music of caressing,
Each taking passionately the other's part.
All the silent beauty of your shadows
Reappears as song that nothing jars,
Sheer happiness unfolding without end.

Fifty years together is a mountain
In truth not all of us would wish to climb.
For umpteen thousand days... but, well, who's countin'?
The two of you have trudged up this incline.
Yet what you see up there must be sublime.

Your love has shaped your lives much as the weather
Erodes the Earth into majestic forms.
A half a century of life together
Reveals the rock beneath the mountain heather,
Splendidly unmoved by passing storms.

Every child born into the world is a new thought of God
An ever fresh and radiant possibility.

I love these little people;
and it is not a slight thing,
when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.

In praising or loving a child,
we love and praise not that which is,
but that which we hope for.

Honor thy parents, those that gave thee birth,
and watched in tenderness thine earliest days,
and trained thee up in youth, and loved in all.
Honor, obey and love them; it shall fill their souls with holy joy,
and shall bring down God's richest blessing on thee;
and in days to come, thy children, it they're given,
shall honor thee, and fill thy life with peace.

Remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, how he said, "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God."

Lord, teach me all that I should know:
In grace and wisdom I may grow;
The more I learn to do Thy will,
The better may I love Thee still.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures, great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows there we play,
The rushes by the water
We gather every day.

He have us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

God made the world so broad and grand,
Filled with blessings from His hand.
He made the sky so high and blue,
And all the little children too.

Peace be to this house
And to all who dwell in it.
Peace be to them that enter
And to them that depart.

Day by day, dear Lord, of Thee
Three things I pray:
To see Thee more clearly,
To love Thee more dearly,
To follow Thee more nearly,
Day by day.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray Thee, Lord, Thy child to keep:
Thy love guard me through the night
And wake me with the morning light.

What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice, and everything nice.
That what little girls are made of.

What are little boys made of?
Ships and snails, and puppy dog's tails.
That's what little boys are made of.

Boys are found everywhere - on top of,
underneath, inside of, climbing on,
swinging from, running around, or jumping to.
Mothers love them, little girls hate them,
older sisters and brothers tolerate them,
adults ignore them and Heaven protects them.

A boy is truth with dirt on it's face.
Beauty with a cut on it's finger,
Wisdom with bubble gum in it's hair,
and the Hope of the future with a frog in it's pocket.

O God, make us children of quietness and heirs of peace.
Amen.

Thank Heaven for little girls
For little girls grow sweeter everyday.

Little girls are the nicest things that happen to people.
They are born with a little bit of angel shine about them,
and though it wears thin sometimes,
thee is always enough left to lasso your heart-
even when they are sitting in the mud,
or crying temperamental tears,
or parading up the street in mother's best clothes.

Build me a son, O Lord,
who will be strong enough to know when he is weak,
and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid,
one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat,
and humble and gentle in victory.

Never forget to remember the blessings that come each day.

See as a child sees;
The joy,
The wonder,
The hope.

We bring them Lord, in thankful hands,
And yielding them up to thee;
Joyful that we ourselves are thine,
Thine let our off-spring be.

O God, our heavenly Father, grant that this child,
as <he/she> grows in years, may also
grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and that by the restraining and renewing influence
of the Holy Spirit <he/she> may ever be a true child of
thine, serving thee faithfully all of his/her days.
So guide and uphold the parents of this child that by
giving care, wise counsel, and holy example, they
may lead <him/her> into that life of faith whose strength
is righteousness and whose fruit is everlasting joy
and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

God be in my head,
And in my understanding;
God be in my eyes,
And in my speaking;
God be in my heart,
And in my thinking;
God be at my end,
And at my departing.

Let there be spaces in your togetherness.

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

I have looked into your eyes with my eyes. I have put my heart near your heart.

God is a great matchmaker.

Where there is love there is life.