Walk on Easter Sunday

These are two pictures from our walk on Easter Sunday morning. After an early church service and a cozy breakfast we headed out for a walk with my in-laws. The weather around Easter was suddenly really cold with snow and rain, but on Sunday the weather was beautiful. I wanted to post something more substantial, but I have trouble concentrating as I'm sneezing and feverish... Wah!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Food for thought over a long weekend

We will leave tomorrow morning for a weekend with my in-laws. It's always fun and relaxing to visit them. They live a two-hour drive to the north-east from here. For those from Germany or interested in German geography: my in-laws live in Paderborn :).

But as for once I have a little time to blog, I thought I'd put up another post and leave you with a few quotes I came across while reading about Holy Week and Christ' sufferings on our behalf. The quotes are from Frederick S. Leahy's The Cross He bore. Have a blessed Easter, everyone!

"As we meditate on Christ's prayerful submission in Gethsemane, we should realize that there, as Philip E. Hughes puts it, "we see him enduring our hell so that we may be set free to enter his heaven". And so at unspeakable cost he drank "the cup" to the very last drop. [...] Now he gives to his people the cup of salvation (Psalm 116:13). These two cups, one so bitter, the other so sweet, stand side by side: the one cup necessitated the other. One cup was emptied that the other might be filled to overflowing. The first cup guaranteed the second. Both cups are precious and bear the hallmark of sovereign grace."

[Christ] never doubet the holy decree by which he came into the world to save sinners. And so the darker the night, the greater the storm and fiercer the conflict, the more he reached out to his Father and rested in his sovereign will.

A reminder during Holy Week

If Ephesians teaches me to imitate Christ, why do I look so much like the world? If I examine my daily life, I am afraid of the answer. Do people see Jesus when they look at me, what I say, what I do, how I (re)act? It is my daily prayer that they do, but I fail in many ways every day. But I know that Jesus died to atone for my sin and to carry my weakness. His strength is made perfect in my weakness. Whatever little service and obedience I offer, God accepts it because of His son Jesus Christ and His perfect rigtheousness. He uses my humble attempts for His glory. And He looks at my heart.
I wanna be like my Jesus! Oh so much more than I can you here through words on this blog. That people may catch a glimpse of His love, mercy, patience, forgiveness, compassion through my life and through His dealings with me.

Whose priorities do you follow?

As many of you know I recently started working full-time. It is an exiting though time- and energyconsuming job. First let me say that I do enjoy my job. However, working outside our home does not - as I knew before - make things easier. My DH and I both agreed that I would work too until we are blessed with children. Therefore we are both away during most of the day and decided to share many home responsibilities. Now I am truly blessed to have a wonderful DH who is a great cook and does not mind household chores at all. Still I believe that taking care of our home is first and foremost my job. I am the wife. The Bible teaches us that wives are to be helpers of their husbands and keepers of the home. Now how that is spelled out in detail may look different for every couples, but this does not change the basics. For this reason it is important to me to find enough time to spend time with my DH and then to clean, cook or make our home a warm, comfortable and relaxing place. At the same time I am so thankful for the wonderful, hard-working and caring husband God gave me.

If I shared this at work, I think most people would be rather surprised at my thoughts. Working really puts you into a career-oriented place, even if you did not expect it in that particular area of work. Many people assume that of course you want to pursue a career, put all your energies into your job and hire helpers, nurses, maids etc. for the "rest". The top priorities are or at least seem to be career and self-fulfillment. It is very easy to adopt those priorities if you are surrounded by them all the time and if they are "preached" to you by your co-workers.
These priorities, however, are not God's priorities. Personally, I believe that the Bible teaches us different values. My life is first about glorifying God and enjoying Him. Then comes my relationship with my husband and my "job" as a wife. I pray that God will help me to keep His commands in my heart and my feet on His way.

Stan Rogers Barrett's Privateers

I just had to share this with you. Stan Rogers, a late Folk singer from Canada, is one of my favorite singers. I love Folk music.
The first time I heard this song was while studying a semester in Oslo, Norway. I went to an acapella concert (Atlantic chant) where a group of men sang this song. It's been a favorite since then. Enjoy!

Impressions from our last weekend

There is the idea of a longer post brewing in my head, but to prove that I'm still alive and blogging here are some pictures of our last hike (up on a basalt hill):