The Many Dimensions of Elke
My husband told me today I had become one-dimensional, meaning that all I cared to discuss was God or the Bible, which no surprise, hurt me.
This one is for you, Honey. Talk to me about any or all of them.
Your wife is a:
- lover of God, my forever Love, most important part of my being and what makes me tick
- lover of you, my Love, my second most important part of existence
- lover of our family, the third in sequence
- lover of people
- lover of animals
- lover of plants
- lover of Israel and the Middle East
- lover of Africa
- lover of India
- lover of the rest of the globe
- lover of travel to all of the above
- lover of art, in particular Dutch and Flemish painters
- lover of books
- lover of music, from classical to hip hop, well some
- lover of all things technology
- lover of adopting cool technology early and learning all about it
- lover of social media
- lover of movies, admittedly especially of artsy-fartsy European ones
- lover of food, all foods, especially exotic ones
- lover of museums (art, history, natural, technology, you name it...)
- lover of archaeology
- lover of nature
- lover of mountains
- lover of the ocean (when it doesn't involve hours in the hot sun on a crowded beach)
- lover of solitude
- lover of crowds
- lover of cities
- lover of quaint little towns
- lover of sports (baseball makes my heart tick, but so do basketball, football, tennis)
- lover of the Bible
- lover of poetry
- lover of novels
- lover of history and everything about it, including places where history happened
- lover of writing, in particular scholarly stuff
- lover of learning
- lover of studying culture and, in particular, cultural mores
- lover of languages, especially weird ones like Hebrew and Greek, but Arabic is high on list
That should be a good start, no?
So talk to me. About what makes me tick. I might watch the occasional golf game on TV with you in turn.
posted by Elke at
4:00 PM
I had barely passed childhood myself, turning 19 only a few short weeks earlier. I was a little over two months into my marriage and quite frankly very excited, but also very scared of what was ahead.
We knew she would be born on May 9th, even though her due date was May 15th, but the little stinker had turned upside down, and so the doctor had decided to schedule a Caesarean.
So on May 8th, I was admitted to the hospital for an early morning birth the following day. In those days, moms were knocked out for a Caesarean, so I just remember coming to slowly and hearing my mom joke "they didn't have to cut anything off" as I had hoped for a girl. :-)
I didn't get to see JoAnne Marie, born at 7:44 am and weighing 6 lbs 2 oz, until quite some time later when they brought her to me. I was still in and out, but I remember thinking two things: "She is beautiful." and "She is so tiny!"
The next two weeks were a hospital stay with JoAnne just carted in at first for feedings. My breast milk didn't come in until six days after her birth, so nursing was a frustrating exercise for both of us ... and the nurses were trying to talk me into bottle feeding, which I did not want to do. It was a rough time for all of us!
At long last, we got to go home.
JoAnne grew and got to be cuter and cuter. This is my beautiful girl at about two years old:
So now, here we are, 31 years later, and JoAnne is a Yale graduate, a wife, a mom of two beautiful young boys - and as gorgeous as ever.
P.S. Another favorite (many years after the) birth story:
My obstetrician, Dr. Schmitt, who delivered JoAnne became a believer late in life - and we used to see him when we were back in Germany at our church in Giessen (Freie Evangelische Gemeinde). He went into the presence of his Lord and Savior a few years ago - and I, for one, look forward to seeing him again.
posted by Elke at 9:01 AM
posted by Elke at 4:32 PM
It is the shot from the divine starter pistol to another year of reading through the Scriptures for me.
This year, I have chosen the NET (New English Translation) and the Chronological reading plan from Youversion.com.
I am excited to start afresh and to begin where it all starts - Genesis 1:1 on 1/1/11. How wonderfully fitting!
I chose the NET because it is a faithful translation with amazing study and translation notes (see example of Gen. 2:18 above). I have a hard copy of it, but you can easily find it online (see link above). It was translated by a number of scholars I have the highest respect for. 2010 had me using the HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible), in particular the Apologetics Study Bible. It was good, but not great. So far, my favorite translation remains the ESV (English Standard Version), which is amazing in the ESV Study Bible version thanks to its outstanding study notes and images.
I have found as I have read through the Bible for the past six or so years that it requires the same kind of discipline as exercising. As much as I love God's Word, it is so easy to have other distractions take over. If I don't purposefully set aside time every morning, I fall behind. If I fall behind (which I do), I have to purposefully sacrifice something else to get caught up again.
In 2010, I read my last 14 chapters of Revelation on the morning of January 2011, but I think it's still fair to say I read through the Bible in a year. It is an awesome feeling to put the Bible I used for that year's reading back on the shelf and to pull down another one (the "chosen" one for that year) and to break out the markers and start afresh. I love jotting down thoughts or highlighting important (to me) passages and have started using six pens (red, blue, yellow, orange, red and green) to mark what seems worthy of marking. I am not always consistent in how I apply the colors (there are suggestions if you google), but I can still go back into last year's Bible and find things quickly.
I would love to do learn the Precepts inductive Bible study method one of these days. Maybe I will try for it this year - not sure I have the time with seminary work load.
In the meantime, I am just plain going to enjoy being in God's Word every day. I sometimes think of it as the Holy Spirit lid that keeps the lid on what could be the trashcan of my life without it (slightly adapted from Beth Moore).
And into Genesis I venture...
posted by Elke at 2:13 PM
Although there were many things not to like, it was a year where God grew me by leaps and bounds. And for that I am so grateful.
I can't wait to see what God has in store for us in 2011.
And I do hope you know him and can come along for the ride.
posted by Elke at 12:57 AM