15 things about me

1) I don’t like “Care Bears.” I had a bad experience as a child. I will never buy my children a care bear movie or stuffed animal. If you love me, you won’t either
2) If you had told me 4 years ago that I would study languages in college, I would have laughed at you.
3) I prefer Hebrew over Greek (and think it is weird that I know which I prefer).
4) At some point in the near future I want to spend an extended period of time living and working at an orphanage. I don’t want to teach a VBS, paint, etc while there. I just want to sit on the floor, love on the kids and be a part of their daily life.
5) I get more homework done while sitting at Starbucks or Panera than I do in my own room.
6) I took piano lessons for about 10 years and ballet/pointe for about 12 years (it seems like at lot of people at HBU don’t know this).
7) I hate shopping for pants just as much (if not more than) as I hate shopping for swimsuits
8) My calendar on my computer (ical on my mac) is color coded, has EVERYTHING on it, and makes some of my friends want to throw up my at OCD-ness
9) I only like hugging people that I am very close to so when random people come up to me and try to give me hugs (ESPECIALLY frontal hugs) it kind of weirds me out.
10) I want to adopt at least 2 kids...
11) Certain phone rings and other noises make me jump because they sound like a fire alarm at first and fire alarms are WAY too common in all the dorms I have lived in the past 3 years.
12) I love driving long distances at dusk…sunset, good music, driving down the freeway, it doesn’t get much better than that.
13) I want to work in family ministries that help equip moms and dads to be better parents (i.e. crisis pregnancy center, etc) and am looking at pursuing a Master’s Degree that will better equip me for this ministry.
14) I didn’t think I was one of those girls who a really cute pair of shoes made her day better but a few weeks ago, I learned differently.
15) I tend to act like I am on “Mission Impossible” while I am on RA rounds in the dorms with Scott.

The Year of Prayer - A Disciple's Renewal

Hello my friends

Welcome to 2009 :-) As you might have gathered from the title of this blog, 2009 is a year of prayer for me. It is something that God has been laying on my heart and convicting me of : to be more spiritually disciplined and to me on my knees praying for my family, friends, and direction for my life. In all honesty, these first 11 days have not been the most successful but God is growing me and teaching me how to make prayer a part of my day-to-day life. Sometimes prayer is frustrating to me because I feel like I should know how to pray but then when I start my mind wanders, I don't know what to pray for/who to pray for etc etc. So I have been searching the scripture to see what God teaches about prayer (if you have any thoughts/scriptures, I would love to hear from you...lundlf@hbu.edu) and am learning much (i.e. sometimes, the best thing is just to "be still and listen"). But if you think of it, I would appreciate your prayers for my prayer journey.

There is a book called "The Valley of Vision" which is a collection of Puritan Prayers. I have wanted it for a very long and got it for Christmas. I wanted to share a prayer from this book that is a perfect expression of my heart right now.

A Disciple's Renewal
"O MY SAVIOR,
Help me, I am so slow to learn,
so prone to forget,
so weak to climb;
I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights;
I am pained by my graceless heart, my prayerless days,
my poverty of love,
my sloth in the heavenly race,
my sullied conscience,
my wasted hours,
my unspent opportunities.
I am blind while light shines around me:
take the scales from my eyes,
grind to dust the evil heart of unbelief.
Make it my chiefest joy to study thee,
meditate on thee, gaze on thee, sit like Mary at thy feet,
lean like John on thy breast,
appeal like Peter to thy love,
count like Paul all things dung.
Give me increase and progress in grace
so that there may be
more decision in my character,
more vigour in my purposes,
more elevation in my life,
more fervour in my devotion,
more constancy in my zeal.
As I have a position in the world,
keep me from making the world my position;
May I never seek in the creature
what can be found only in the Creator;
Let not faith cease from seeking thee
until it vanishes into sight.
Ride forth in me, thou King of kings
and Lord of lords,
that i may live victoriously,
and in victory attain my end."