This morning I awoke early before the rest of my family arose.

I faithfully empt ied yesterdays coffee grains from the filter. I proceeded to fill up the carafe w ith the specially filtered water from the refrigerator; taking a whole 5 minutes to fill to the top. Then, I reached for the bag of my Mocha Java blend and Whoo sh, my hand-made no purchase. Dang, we are out of coffee beans. So, that just wi ll not stand in the household of mine. Naturally, I set out in the gentle rain t o Caribou Coffee. As I was driving, I was thinking of my nono(grandpa in Italian o). He used to say some of the funniest things. One of the phrases that I heard all the time was: You can polish a turd, but its still just a turd. I apologize for using such a crude term but, you had to know my grandpa.He suffered from mental illness and random bouts of brilliance as well.As that statement was tumbling a round in my mind, I had an idea for a poem about how we shine the illustrious pa tina of our facade while the inside of our souls are decaying, slowly losing the spark of hope, being extinguished forever. The bible says in the book of Mark C hapter 8 verse 36: What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? If you are a striver of material things, if you constantly reach for t he brass ring, stop and focus on the real problem in your life: sin and a desire to strive in your own power and the mounting rebellion our hearts are prone to do. You cant put a beautiful varnish on top of rotten wood. God wants to make you shine from the inside out. That is true beauty and when God does something he s tarts out with a perfect foundation(the forgiveness of sins thanks to His Son an d the unwavering belief in Jesus deity) and builds every thing else on top of tha t marvelous truth. Dont be afraid of living an authentic life, not living in crip pling fear of what others think of you and accepting a calling that will transfo rm your decaying heart into a treasure more valued than diamonds, silver and gol d.

As always, feel free to comment, subscribe, re-post, relive, return to Him and t ell others about what you have learned here today.

The Great Plains Poet, a non-hoodwinked realizer of his brokenness and a true ex ample of the redemptive qualities of serving a risen Savior.

Sweep And Be Merry a poem by Chris T.

Sweep and be merry you keepers of clean. Arranging your diorama into the perfect scene. Scrub and scrub the table and countertop. Making sure to erase the grime,the crumbs and the slop.

For tonight the neighbors come to partake in a meal, And we cant allow a true glimpse or reveal. Of a millimeter below the glimmering patina.

Hiding the sweat and the breath tinged with the taste of tequila

We all work so hard to push far, far down. Our colors of pain and a quick flash of frown. So we jam pack our lives with a beautiful visage, And adorning our person with many accoutrements

Why do we spring upon a man of truth? A man not afraid of the mistakes of youth. A soul who lives beyond the surface of lies A man whose concern is for family, its bonds and its ties.

So sweep and be merry you vacuous corpse. You ten pounds of guile crammed in a 5 pound bag of remorse. So, continue to polish and polish that festering turd. Losing your soul in a farce so absurd.