The Miracles in My Life: Poems, Prayers, and Ponderings

By Marvyle Latham

Appalled by the growing loss of our freedoms? Fed-up with human interest stories, and biased commentary replacing the who, what, when and where of proper news reporting? Do you wonder what is really going on in the world?

Are you traumatized by the lack of good jobs and common sense? Alarmed by the growing violence on our streets, on our televisions, in our movies and in our schools? Shocked by organized protests against our best in blue? Dismayed by the general disregard for law and order? If you are, this book may be a very real blessing to you or to someone you know. Please order it from Westbow Press, your local bookstore, or from your favorite online retailer.

These pages, from the first word to the last, describe my journey out of the darkness into the saving truth and the realization that truth frees us from our self-inflicted sorrows. If diligently sought, truth will reveal the source of the miracles and all the goodness in our lives. Only adherence to truth will lead us to the sanity, stability, peace and prosperity that we once enjoyed in this now troubled world.

Looking back over this journey, I have found that we each must go through our own developing process in order to arrive where our patient Creator intended upon our conception. When we serve at His pleasure, we are amazed to discover our own inexpressible joy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490827667

Marvyle Latham

Born in Minnesota, the author grew up in Montana as well as in eastern Washington, later graduating with honors in creative writing from Jefferson High School in Portland, Oregon. While in high school, Marvyle enjoyed her work on the school paper, later becoming a successful copywriter for an advertising agency.

Book preview

THE MIRACLES IN MY LIFE

Poems, Prayers, and Ponderings

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MARVYLE LATHAM

The oil painting on the cover (and above) was completed in 1961 by Marvyle Latham.

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Copyright © 2014 Marvyle Latham.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2767-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2768-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2766-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014903656

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/10/2015

Contents

POEMS

And the Winner Is …

Bread

Climb to Faith

Deception

Deliverance

Drought

Farewell, My Colorado Home

God’s Perfect Timing

Good Things Must End

Grandmother’s Reticule

History

In His Image

Metamorphosis

Prayer for a Dying Troubled Child

Prepare

Quilting

Spring in Colorado

Seasonal Homestead

Shock

Surfers Beware

The Banker’s Son

The Child in the Park

The City upon a Hill

The Man Who Wasn’t There

The Seekers

The Tent Maker

The Unwilling Journey

The Wedding

The Worthy Search

To Frani

To Only One

What Ending?

Your Brother, the Sun

PRAYERS

For Our Nation, 1998

March 1998

March 1999

Christmas 2002

Thanksgiving 2003

Christmas 2005

Thanksgiving 2006

Christmas 2006

For the Upcoming Election of 2008

State of Our Nation 2010

2013

Thanksgiving 2013

Christmas 2013

2014

March 30, 2014

Summer 2014

July 2014

Short Prayers

PONDERINGS

What Was That?

Bittersweet: Some Sad Realities and Some Happy Memories

Before I Was Saved

The Truth about the Truth

Letter to My Youngest Daughter’s Three Children

I See You, or Do I?

Letter to My Middle Daughter’s Family at a Time of Grave Illness

Against All Odds

Evil

Letter to My Oldest Daughter

To Be a Christian

Letter to My Grandson

Short Sermon

Joplin: Oh, Did You See It?

Letter to the President

Christmas 2012

Easter Morning 2013

A Marriage in Trouble

Has God Removed Protection from America?

The Perfect Text

What Would Jesus Do?

The Future Does Not Look So Good

The Need for Polishing

The True Early American Story

The Birds and the Bees

Please Read the First Epistle of John 2:1-8 AKJB

Some Random Thoughts

SHORT STORIES

The Adventures of Jerome

The Whole Ballgame

THE MIRACLES IN MY LIFE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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This book is dedicated

to the true cornerstone of America,

the living Christ Jesus.

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Introduction

From the time I was a small child, I have had an affinity for pencil and paper. It also has always been my wish to leave this world a more beautiful place than how I found it. Thus I have enjoyed doing all kinds of needlework, designing, and sewing. I have loved buying houses which have seen better days and restoring them to their former glory, either to live in or to sell. I have a great respect for history, and I am fond of lovely old furnishings and fine china.

After working on the school paper, writing letters to the editors of newspapers (an ongoing proposition), expressing myself in poetry, and graduating with honors in creative writing, life took over. With it, the arts took a backseat to first my marriage and eventually to the raising of my three beautiful daughters! But that pencil and paper still claimed my thoughts and small scraps of precious time. Thus through the years, my collection of poetry, prayers, and ponderings were tucked away in desk drawers. That is, until one day …

After my morning devotions, something in my spirit told me that the things I’d written about—things that had actually happened along the way—were not meant to be hidden away in dark desk drawers. The good news they contained was meant to be shared with others. Life has been such an interesting and blessed metamorphosis! So I set about gathering them together as my legacy to my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, and to you, my dear reader.

Because of the massive ungodly influences being forced upon our young people today, I was compelled to publish this book.

Since the 1960’s, the national public school system has revised history, banned God from the classroom, and made radical changes in curriculum. In many cases, this holds true in the halls of higher education to an even higher degree. Working hand in hand with the school system, television has lifted its former high moral code and is awash with raunchy programming. The fine old art of journalism has strayed from providing unbiased news to trumpeting the agenda of the far left, computers and magazine stands offer insidious pornography, and movie houses thunder with earsplitting violence and feature moral disintegration.

This book is my gift to those sixteen to ninety-six who are confused with the disturbing new society in which we find ourselves today. It is my hope that the poems, prayers, and ponderings herein will inspire others to aspire to the same faith and high standards held by the founders of the greatest nation ever devised by God and man in order to return America to the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Poems

And the Winner Is …

First day of spring

and the warmth of the nearing sun

is cooled by a frosty gasp

as winter strains to maintain

its willful, icy grasp.

Just know that spring will meekly

creep to push the wily crocus up,

employ the joy of yellow

(tulip and buttercup)

to outshout winter, now so mellow.

The whisper of a shower

reclothes the starkest tree,

and pungent earth,

so richly garbed,

once more reflects His majesty.

Bread

Proof the yeast, the flour waits,

two willing hands to blend the mound,

massaging as the oven heats

a rising so profound.

Now it’s time, with fisted blow,

pummeling