Blah, Blah, Blah!!!: Home Alone

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Home Alone

I had a beautiful Saturday in Amsterdam. Right now Alice and her daughters are attending a birthday party, so I am home alone. Yikes! I don't speak a word of Dutch, so even logging in to my blog account is tricky for me without Alice here. I had to guess what my "Gebruikersnaam" was, then my "Wachtwoord" and then what do do when it said "Aanmelden". Somehow, I landed here!

Here are some of my first impressions of Amsterdam: It is a city alive with the colors of Spring! Blooms are everywhere and people take great pride in their lawns and gardens. These are just a few of the sights that I see as I walk throughout the neighborhood. These flowers were just along the sidewalk. Sorry they are so blurry!

This one is for Laura. Here are the tulips you requested. Aren't they gorgeous!?! I took this picture at a flower market in the city. You can buy a huge bouquet of tulips for about $5.00.

Wisteria for Karen and Harv. Does this remind you of your wedding?

This couple is planning for their wedding. We met them on Thursday and their wedding is today (Saturday). They were purchasing these tulips for their big day. The tulips they selected were a very delicate, soft pink. The funny thing is, the couple isn't even Dutch!

Alice and I take long walks every day. Here is Alice beside one of the many trees that are in bloom this week.

Here I am, next to one of the many canals.

Today we were in the city of Doorn and I took my first pictures of windmills. I will post those later and share all the fascinating new historical facts that I learned.

2 comments:

Laura said...: Thanks for my tulips (Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irrisistable Grace, Perseverance of the Saints)
I love them!!!!!!!

Love you, too!

Laura; April 18, 2009 at 6:33 PM
Nancy said...: The pictures came through great!
BEAUTIFUL!!!!
I'm so happy for you! It looks like you are enjoying yourself to the fullest! I printed the blog for mom We are going there for the Sun brunch tomorrow with Harv & Kare, they got home this afternoon. Love you! Nancy
!; April 18, 2009 at 8:11 PM

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One thing we may be sure of, however: For the believer all pain has meaning; all adversity is profitable. There is no question that adversity is difficult. It usually takes us by surprise and seems to strike where we are most vulnerable. To us it often appears completely senseless and irrational, but to God none of it is either senseless or irrational. He has a purpose in every pain He brings or allows in our lives. We can be sure that in some way He intends it for our profit and His glory.
--Jerry Bridges

God is doing a greater work in us, and that can only come as we learn to trust Him no matter how dark the days and sleepless the nights. And it is only as we have been through the darkness with Him that what we know with our heads slides down into our hearts, and our hearts no longer demand answers. The “Why?” becomes unimportant when we believe that God can and will redeem the pain for our good and his glory. . . . When I put the sovereignty of God beside His unfailing love, my heart can rest.
--Verdell Davis

Our circumstances are not an accurate reflection of God's goodness. Whether life is good or bad, God's goodness, rooted in His character, is the same.
--Helen Grace Lescheid

All of us have wondered at times why God doesn't do more to fix our problems. But our human eyes often fail to see that God isn't rushing to change our circumstances because he is concerned with a much more serious problem -- our character. While you struggle with the woes of this world, God's main occupation is preparing you for the world to come. The focus of what God is doing in your life takes place in you, not around you.
--Andy Stanley, in "Like A Rock"

There is no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart.
--Alan Redpath

The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is this: irritations get into his shell . . . . and when he cannot get rid of them, he uses the irritations to do the loveliest thing an oyster ever has the chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives today, there is only prescription: make a pearl . . . . And it takes faith and love to do it.
--Harry Emerson Fosdick

What a difference it makes when a trial comes, to see in it not the hand of an avenger, but the loving discipline of a father and the gentle admonition of a mother! God would not have us feel even the shadow of His anger. Judgment hardens the spirit and God never wants to break the spirit of His obedient child, but to win us by His love and transform us by the gentleness. Beloved, let us ever look upon our trials in the tender light of the Father’s love. It is not the token of His displeasure, but the very pledge of His jealous love, a love so inexorable that it will not let us miss His holiest and best.
--A. B. Simpson

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