Is it in you?

The other day I saw this picture:


Most people realize that this picture is for a Gatorade ad, and the ad's slogan is "Is it in you?"

So this got me thinking... about the love of Christ in relation to colored sweat Garorade ads... one idea of the commercial is that you have Gatorade in your system and it is literally seeping out of your pores. When the love of Christ is in you, and you are living every day of your life to please Him and making every effort to show His love to others, it should be obvious. So obvious as if it were colored sweat seeping out of your skin, for all to see. 


John 13:35 [Jesus said] "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another." 


Jesus Christ walked this earth showing His love... because He IS love (I John 4:8). He showed it to sinners, to pharisees, to children, to widows, to orphans, to soldiers, to the sick, to the needy, to tax collectors, to families. Jesus Christ showed love. His biggest demonstration of that, being His sacrifice on the cross. 


Ephesians 5:1-2 "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

And since we ourselves are supposed to be imitating Christ, we should live our lives showing His love to others.

So I asked myself, is the love of Christ so evident in my life that it is literally seeping out of me?

Is it in you?

August Rolls In...

The 2011-12 school year is underway... and so far, so good. ;-) The first week or two is always the easiest since I think they kind of EASE you into the material, so a lot of review and light assignments... YAY. I have 8 classes and they have all proved alright... most years I get at least one class that I really just don't like, but so far I am enjoying all my classes (or at least not HATING them ;-). The waking up early has been a fairly smooth transition too which is nice, except I have been setting 3 alarms since I tend to sleep through at least the first one. :-D My brother is still not back-to-school yet so he wakes up about 5 hours after me at 10:45 which makes me a wee bit jealous, hehe. My Mom is going to college for her nursing degree and so she had her first class today. Apparently there are over 200 students and she was told she would spend about 12 hours a week studying in addition to her class times. So it is a big commitment, but she is really excited about it.

Volleyball is going well... I am really excited about the group of girls I have as team-mates and getting to play with them! We have our first game a week from today which is exciting... and scary. But we do have a scrimmage on Thursday which I think will be a lot of fun and good practice. ;-)

Today I made a recipe that was supposed to make 6 dozen cookies and I think it made about 5... I gave 1.5 dozen to our neighbors, and my family ate the remaining cookies within the past 6 hours. Wow. And for the record I have not eaten even one...and my parents have only had like 2 each... so ya, I think that's why my siblings are SO HYPER tonight. :-D

I'm having a hard time thinking... what did I say about the waking up early thing being an easy transition? :Yawn: Anyways...

Our family is going camping over Labor Day with some other families... and unfortunately that means missing BSU Game #1. :'( I am quite distraught but alas, the great outdoors are calling apparently...

Some friends of ours are moving here and so I have landed myself a 10-hour per week child care job helping with the kids (2.5 yrs and 18 mos) and helping with laundry, cooking, house-cleaning, umpacking, etc. since their Mom is having a rough 3rd pregnancy and is supposed to be resting a lot. I am pretty excited so that will start here in a week or two.

In other news, my calculator died while I was mid-problem set in math. Really sad.

What is everyone else up to on here?

What am I doing here?

Several times throughout the day, I will walk into a room of our house with a task to do or an item to grab in mind, but then forget. So, I will walk in and then ask aloud to myself "what am I doing here?" Sometimes I remember and sometimes I don't. :-) So when I have forgotten a lot that particular day, the next time I go to get something or do a task or whatever, I will say over and over to myself what it is I am doing to try and help me keep focused.

But it has made me think a little bit... it is easy to forget your purpose if you're not constantly reminding yourself what it is. Our purpose in life... according to Ephesians 2:10, is to glorify Christ in all that we do. And so when you are not spending time in His Word and talking to God, it is really easy to forget your purpose and the whole point of your life. It has really encouraged me to make sure I am making my time with Christ a huge priority, so that my decisions are fulfilling my purpose in life.

Just some thoughts :-)

Chronicles of the Lundberg Family Camping Trip

So this past week my family went camping for 6 days and 5 nights up in the Sawtooths kind of between Stanley and Lowman.

Basically my day would go as follows:
-Wake up
-Make food
-Read Bible
-Play games/cards with siblings
-Sit on shore of river and read/Play in river
-Make food
-Read
-Nap (BLISS)
-Make food
-Eat S'Mores
-Devotions/talk with family
-Read
-Sleep

So ya overall that's a pretty relaxing day... I finished two books, and got through about 200 pages of Sherlock Holmes. :)

One day we went on a 6-7ish mile hike which was really fun. The mountains are so gorgeous! The dogs particularly enjoyed the hike and it was so funny watching them get back into their kennel and just CRASH cause they were so tired.

Another day, we were all in the river and my brother and I walked up the hill to get something from the tent when we spotted a fire about 100 yards from our camp. About 4 trees were burning and so we called down the hill for the family and all jumped in our Suburban and started driving to the Forest Service station a mile up the road. There were some guys there who brought buckets and we had a couple in our camp site, so we all started filling buckets at the river and walking them up to the fire (about 100 yards). Then a guy with a 4-wheeler came so we got to load buckets on that which was so cool since carrying a bucket in each hand the length of a football field up hill can get kind of heavy :) We got the fire contained and then a truck with water from Lowman (about 1/2 hour away) came and put out the rest of it. It was quite an adventure!

Another day we went to a hot springs which was so awesome! I felt CLEAN for a little while :)

Overall the trip was a good one... I am personally not the hugest fan of camping so I looked at this as an opportunity to have a good attitude, be helpful, and serve my family. And I did end up enjoying a lot of it ;) I am so thankful for showers though... seriously!

Currently I am trying to find the bottom of our laundry baskets... I am on load 6 of laundry and am about 1/2 way done... thankfully my Mom likes to fold laundry, so we make a good team. :)

Thus concludes the Chronicles of the Lundberg Family Camping Trip!

Summer of Craziness

So this Summer has been totally crazy and busy! I have gotten to do a lot of fun things but I have not stopped doing since school let out!

Major events that have transpired this Summer...

-Beach trip with Aunt and cousins. See previous post.
-JEM Basketball camp. Only the last 2 days cause I was still with Aunt and cousins on the first one ;)
-FCA Basketball camp. With several of my favorite girls! It was a super fantastically fun week of basketball! I had a super fun group of girls in my huddle, and our leader was really awesome too. We did a lot of laughing. :) It was so amazing to play basketball twice a day and workout! I am so blessed to have been able to go. It was a total BLAST
-Getting my LICENSE :D :D :D This is self explanatory :)
-Visiting my family in Pittsburgh and visiting my Grandparents in ENGLAND. First of all I am so blessed to have family in England to visit ;) It was super fun going over there and experiencing the different country. We went to a castle, went on a few hikes, went on a picnic, visited an AMAZING playground, went to the Royal Airforce air field to watch planes take off, made jam and crumble and dinner and all sorts of food lol... just to name a few! :) Super fun week!
-JEM Volleyball camp. Which is still going on :)

Our family is going on another camping trip in a few weeks. And otherwise the rest of the summer is just usual stuff - getting ready for school, etc. Hopefully more basketball too :) I have been spending a bunch of time over the past few days just talking to my family and spending time with them since I feel like I haven't seen them in forever! My sisters have been reminding me that I promised to take them for milkshakes with my giftcard since I now have my license ;)

I am loving the warm weather! Yay for sunshine! :)

Seasons

I received a large envelope in the mail today full of information about a college program I have been looking into. I opened it, glanced through it, and put it onto my bookshelf right next to the other ones that have come. (that I've bothered to save, that is) I was talking to my Mom a little about life too. It kind of reminded me of how there are different seasons of life... how much I love this season of being at home around my family all the time, sports, high school ...even when I don't think I love it :D, and the different joys and challenges that come along with my teenage years. And so when I am tempted to think "Oh wow I cannot believe this season of life as I know it will be gone soon!" and sort of wish I had it back, I can look forward to future seasons of life... And when  I think  "I wish I could hurry up and...", I can really cherish the moment and season that I am in right now. Because ultimately I cannot change the past and cannot make the future come any faster. I am so thankful for my God who knows what I've done, am doing, and will do. And who cares about me and has it all perfectly planned for His glory and for my good.


It is such a huge goal of mine to live my life to glorify Christ... and that's a big thing. For EVERYTHING that I think, say, or do to bring glory to God. And I have recently realized, that in each and every season of life, I can bring glory to Him in different ways. Sometimes I think if I were in a future season of life and were able to minister to others in this way or that way that I really can't right now, I remember that in this season, I am able to minister to others in ways I won't be able to do in future seasons. And I can praise God for the people on my prayer list who minister to me in this season too. 


And the other cool part... through all changes in life, and through all the different seasons, Jesus Christ is still the Rock and He stays the same. And I know I can always come to Him and lean on Him during any season. 

God is so good!

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jer. 29:11


"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Heb 13:8


"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" Ecc. 3:1


"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works..." Eph. 2:10

Family Reunion Trip

For 11 days, I went and stayed with my Aunt, Uncle, and their two young girls. I was commissioned to help drive down to our family reunion at the beach, and then to care for the girls and help my Aunt with them. It was a ton of fun and I really enjoyed spending time with family I hadn't seen in years, and getting to know my Aunt and cousins better.

Molly turned 4 while we were at the beach and we had a cake with about 20 other family members... she ADORES Toy Story, and when I say ADORES, I mean ADORES. Between her sandals, clothing, and toys with the Toy Story theme, I caught the drift eventually. :)


Emma, 20 months, is completely adorable and we became quite good friends over the week... we would come back from the beach in the early afternoon and I'd put her down for her nap and then when she'd wake up 2 hours later, we would eat lunch together, and put our swimming suits back on for the beach. Though as soon as we got to the beach and she caught glimpse of her Mother, I was chopped liver. Oh well.


I watched/listened to more movies in the 26 hours in the car with the girls than I probably do in half a year. I have the ENTIRE soundtrack of "Tangled" memorized as well.

We went through Chick-fil-A THREE times. Me like Chick-fil-A. :D


This is an actual sign in an actual rest stop in the actual state of PA. Actually...


All together the week with them was quite enjoyable and I so enjoyed seeing my cousins. :)

~
Here are a few more pictures...
Emma and me in the pool
Take a look at their facial expressions... CLASSIC