Thorns

Bad things do happen to good people
for we all go through trials and troubles.

Everyone everywhere bears
heavy heartaches and deep cares.
Everyone everywhere wears
intense sadness mixed with tears.
Ofttimes heartaches are not fair.
Sometimes sadness lasts for years.
Ofttimes it's all we wear.
Sometimes life just isn't fair.

Life is often filled with strife.
It seems nothing turns out right.
There's no relief in sight.
Finances are tight.
Perhaps you had a fight.
You cannot see the light.
There's no longer delight.
When will life be all right?

Every lovely rose bears a thorn
as a rainbow follows a storm.
So next time you're forlorn,
heartsick, weary, and worn,
remember after the storm
one day comes a bright new morn.
The rose with thorns adorned
reminds us of life - it's norm.

Every thorn in life wears a rose
Beauty from ashes, I suppose.
Verse for many poets' prose
or so the saying goes.
You need not be old to know,
Just smell a rose with your nose.
The thorns will prick and goad.
We forget the lovely rose.

A lesson from the thorns
perhaps will now be born.
Look beyond the storm
to a bright new morn
where joy adorns
those who are worn.
Beauty from ashes born
out of all of our thorns.

Don't forget the rose
in front of your nose.
Look beyond the lows.
Don't dwell on the woes.
A lovely rose knows
one life's journey goes
from story to pose.
Lovely it grows.

If it weren't for thorns, there would be no roses.
Beauty from ashes.  That said, this poem closes.

* * * * *

Are you focused on your thorns
instead of on your roses?
I know I tend to be,
unfortunately.
A new attitude needs to be formed
instead of focusing on the loses.
I'll find a new attitude is free.
I just need to open my heart to see...

how God has daily and faithfully
provided for and protected me
and that the thorns were sent to prove to me
that God has His best in store for me.

My writing is taking my thorns
in the form of my life's storms
and showing me that God had a good purpose and plan
that hopefully will encourage generations.

In God's time He will bring to pass
His good purpose and plan at last.
In the meantime God is maturing me
to be the person God wants me to be.

...to give unto them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness...
Isaiah 61:3

Be made new in the attitude of your minds;
and put on the new self,
created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:23-24