“Religion and Virtue are the only Foundations, not only of Republicanism and of all free Government, but of Social Felicity under all Governments and in all the Combinations of human Society.” – John Adams (1811)
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On Bended Knee
On Bended Knee
by Michael Doyle
On bended knee,
I see the memory
Of the day and the cost
I watched you let it be
Giving it your dignity
It's hard to add the cost
Making it worse
Is I know that bullet was mine
It had my name
Bleeding across the verse
It's hard to speak and define
Why I still wear the blame
They say we fight and die
For the glorious good of nation
We give our lives for our friends
Politicians seldom know why
But only death ends the obligation
Of living and dying for friends
Taken for granted is that we live
All the moments of American liberty
All for which we protect and defend
Mistakes made, we hope to forgive
As long as we've lived our integrity
We've chosen our moments to expend
This is our breath to expend
In the ways that we gladly choose
All the blood, toil, and treasure
What this matters really depends
But we would never be those to refuse
And so we live and die by this measure
On bended knee,
I pray and live the memory
Of these days and the cost
You paid full price for me
And I cry a bit indignantly
Knowing your death has been the cost
(c) May 22, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Across, American Liberty, Bended Knee, Blame, Bleeding, Blood, Breath, Bullet, Choose, Cost, Cry, Days, Death, Define, Depend, Dignity, End, Expend, Fight and Die, Forgive, Friends, Full Price, Hard, Hope, Indignantly, Integrity, Lives, Measure, Memory, Mine, Mistakes, Moments, My Name, Nation, Obligation, Poetry and Poems, Politicians, Pray, Protect and Defend, Refuse, Speak, Taken For Granted, The Cost, Toil, Treasure, Verse, Watch, Why, Worse, Your Death
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First Principles: Our Obligations To Our Country Never Cease But With Our Lives
“Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.” – John Adams
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Cease, Country, First Principles, John Adams, Lives, Obligations, Our
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Thought For the Day: Greater Love Has no One Than This: To Lay Down One’s Life For One’s Friends
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” – John 15:12-14
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Greater Love, John 15:12-14, Lay Down, One, One's Friends, One's Life, Thought For the Day
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(Walking Christ’s Love) To Eternity
(Walking Christ's Love) To Eternity
by Michael Doyle
Jesus is distinguished as the other
Holy savior and mankind's brother
Wholly God and man, we worship His name
He and only He is able to cross out our blame
We stand humbly trusting in His authority
Excited as He is for all of eternity
We follow in His love with our dignity
Holding to the ways of His love for eternity
The substance of belief started with optimism
Against the world's tangled web of criticism
When taken to the extent of what we can control
We must bring the best of what's good for our souls
We acknowledge the truth of Christ's supremacy
As we examine Christ in His full sufficiency
He is the sovereign of the broken and unbroken road
As He fulfills our faith as we are told
Our lives as Christians are built on the foundation
We find in the Bible and given verses as explanation
All of this informs the way we are to live
Find the best of what life has to offer and give
We know the outcome as given in Revelations
And we remain faithful to our final destination
The Bible is not a thing of vapid secrecy
It is the truth revealed for our security
In His story, we have been shown the ways
That teaches us to live in our best days
We build Our lives as we continue to learn
Given over to the extent that we can discern
Getting older, we put away our innermost child
As we look into the mirror and find reviled
Until we are ready to put on the ways of correction
Those ways that keep us moving in the right direction
We are to put on ways of kindness shared from above
As each of us walks this world with Christ's love
Ours, then, is a mission of openly declared grace
It's up to you and me whether we choose to embrace
This is the path in which we know that we must live
Letting our thankfulness lead us to learn to forgive
In the godly relationship of complex community
It allows us to discern our God's sweet sovereignty
(c) May 26, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Authority, Bible, Broken Road, Christ's Love, Christianity, Control, Criticism, Cross Out Our Blame, Dignity, Discern, Distinguish, Eternity, Faith, Foundation, Grace, His Story, Inner Child, Jesus, Optimsim, Poetry and Poems, Revelations, Salvation, Security, Sould, Sovereignty, Substance, Sufficiency, Supremacy, Thankfulness, The Blble, Walk, Worship
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Thought For the Day: To Love Means Loving the Unlovable. To Forgive Means Pardoning the Unpardonable. Faith Means Believing the Unbelievable.
“To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.” – G.K. Chesterton
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Believe, Faith, Forgive, G.K. Chesterton, Hope, Hopeless, Hoping, Love, Loving, Pardon, Thought For the Day, Unbelievable, Unlovable, Unpardonable
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First Principles: Wives, Submit Yourselves To Your Own Husbands As You Do To the Lord…Husbands, Love Your Wives, Just As Christ Loved the Church
“22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”
“25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[b] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” – Ephesians 5:22-33 (NIV)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Bible, Christ, Church, Ephesians, Ephesians 5:21-33 (NIV), First Principles, Husband, Love, Marriage, One Another, Profound Mystery, Reason, Respect, Reverence, Submission, Submit, Two Will Become One Flesh, Wive
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A Sultry Obsession
A Sultry Obsession
by Michael Doyle
Since an early age, I have had a sultry obsession
With a kind of magic that cannot be held in possession
Cleaning up after others was maybe not so wonderful
But it was doing my bit to keep our America beautiful
Ambling down country roads and along America's waterways
I brought trash bags with me and spent endless sunny days
Trying to take a world that sometimes seemed a bit meaner
Making the effort to do my bit to somehow make it cleaner
There in all of the best of it my camera held the gaze
That captured the beauty seen in all of those many days
There was so much nature to be caught in my appreciation
It was my dream to share these moments of God's creation
With a camera's eye click, I saw so much to acknowledge
To me, Mother Nature herself was the best kind of college
Teaching the science and balance of the best knowledge
And it was from this I made and lived by my pledge
That while I walked in what seems most like my real home
That I would share with others that we are never truly alone
When we walk out in the sunshine and in the crisp morning air
Nature cares for us beyond man's ability to return the care
From the first touch of nature I found all in the world kin
A lifetime later, I sense this feeling when I return once again
Out among the prairies, mountains, and out among the trees
Nature remains my sultry obsession that will forever please
(c) May 25, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Acknowledge, Appreciation, Balance, Beauty, Camera, Camera's Eye, Capture, Cleaner, Cleaning Up, College, Country Roads, Crisp Morning Air, Days, Doing My Bit, Early Age, Effot, Feeling, First Touch, Forever, Gaze, God's Creation, Humanity's Ability, Keep Our American Beautiful, Kind of Magic, Knowledge, Lifetime Later, Meaner, Mountains, Nature, Never Truly Alone, Once Again, Please, Pledge, Poetry and Poems, Possession, Prairies, Real Home, Return the Care, Science, Share, Sultry Obsession, Sunny Days, Sunshine, Trash Bags, Trees, Walk, Water Ways, Wonderful, World, World Kin
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First Principles: We Don’t Inherit the Earth From Our Ancestors, We Borrow It From Our Children
“We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” – Native American Proverb
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Ancestors, Borrow, Earth, First Principles, Inherit, Native American Proverb, Our Children, We
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Thought For the Day: Forget Not That the Earth Delights To Feel Your Bare Feet and the Winds Long To Play With Your Hair
“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” – Khalil Gibran
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Bare Feet, Delight, Earth, Feel, Forget Not, Hair, Khalil Gibran, Thought For the Day, Wind
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