Crowdtap and Old Navy Strike Again

Greetings All,

So this afternoon I took my friend Katie to go with me to Old Navy. Thanks to Crowdtap.com I was able to once again find the perfect outfit. It took about an hour to find the right fit, color, and jacket. The jacket was harder to find because it was in the back of the store, and there was not that many left. I am thinking that is a good problem to have, even more so if you are an Old Navy store. I finally chose the Woman’s Color Block Compression Jacket in purple. If fits great, moves with my body when I jog, and easily can be worn for errands and weekends out going grocery shopping. It is very warm, and in Oklahoma, cold Novembers and wind are the norm, and although this jacket looks thin, it holds its own. Very warm. I also chose the Women’s Premium Active Boot-Cut Pants in Purple Iris, it matches great, are also warm, and can be used to work out, run, errands etc. It can also be matched with other tops. Very cute outfit!!!


Katie chose Women’s Color Block Jacket in purple with a half-zipper and the Women’s Premium Active Boot-Cut pants in black. She had to find a smaller size since she has lost so much weight. I am proud of her. She had a blast trying on different styles, but we both agree that the longer pants are better for colder weather in the fall. Below are the pictures of our final choices, and we look great. Thanks again to Old Navy and http://www.crowdtap.com/

Blessings,
Jessica Smith

New Old Navy Jeans

Greetings,

Once again, I was picked to test out Old Navy Pants and share my little outting.

My friend Constance and I arrived at Old Navy, and there was hardly anyone there. This was a

good thing, because we like to take our time and enjoy the shopping process. We each picked out

three pairs of pants to try on. Constance went first and looked wonderful in all three, but chose

the second pair she tried on. She chose the Sweetheart Slim Fit pair of jeans, which added to her

lean legs. I tried on three pairs, and only the new Women's Flare Slim fit pair fit me, and looks

awesome! I only had Constance take on picture of the two that fit me, believe me , you do NOT

want to see the third option!

I got the first pair!! Very Cute and Form Fitting.

Thanks Old Navy and www.crowdtap.com for trusting me to follow through and enjoy these jeans!!!!

~Jessica Smith

Old Navy Shorts Adventure

Once again I have been given the privialge to host an old-navy party, this time it was to take several friends out and try on different types of shorts and looks.

We arrived at the store early, only to find that manager was a bit rude and did not believe that we were actually with the Old Navy Style Counsel, however with some research, he finally believed us. He only allowed us to take pictures around the dressing room areas. So we had to make the best out of a horrible start.

The first model is my friend Constance, she tried on a BBQ Look, a serious look, and a playful date at the beach look....below are her pictures.

Next was Liz, She did a super cool with sunglasses look, a BBQ look, and then an everyday girl going to the grocery store look.

I was last, I ended up doing business casual, casual, and funky monkey purple. We each ended up getting the last outfit we tried on, and had a blast except for the mean manager.

Once again, thanks http://www.crowdtap.com/ for this wonderful chance to have fun.

I had one more friend who did this, but I am awaiting the pictures.

~Jessica Smith

Old Navy Review/Report

A promise made, is a promise kept. What do I mean by this? I am a member of the Old Navy Style Council, in which it is my duty and honor to review certain types of clothing then write about my shopping experience. A few weeks ago, I signed up to receive coupons for a free pair of Old Navy Work-Out Pants, within my packet was four coupons one for me, and the other three I was to give to friends. I promised to write a review about my experience and post it on my blog, and tada…here it is!

On my first trip, I went with a college friend, Angie. She was super excited about it, and we spent about an hour trying on different types and lengths. Angie is a size 12, and has some extra hip and curves to her body. She wanted to find something she could go walking in, and run errands in. After choosing two different types, we narrowed it down to the Women’s Wide-Leg Capris in grey. These fit her just right, and drew her attention away from unflattering areas.

I tried on several different types as well, and settled for the Woman’s Fold-Over Yoga Pants in black. They are long enough for my height (5’7”), and had the size I needed (16), they fit very well in all the right areas, and I can dress them up for work, or down to run errands in. In fact, I am wearing them right now as I type out this report.

Above is the pair I actually got, the picture that my friend took was really bad!

On my second shopping trip, I took my friends Kristi and Eva. Kristi is very short and petite, so finding something that fit her small frame wasn’t hard to do. Old Navy offers a large variety of choice and colors, and some designs, so there is something for everyone. She also chose the Woman’s Fold-Over Capris in black, and picked a smaller size than normal. She likes her clothes to be very form-fitting. She promised me that if she went, she would take a picture of herself wearing them at home.

Eva on the other hand is super shy, and did not want her picture involved, so instead of a picture of her, I have put in a picture of the pants she chose. Eva is 5’8”, a size 8, and is a dancer. She looked for something flowing, but comfy. She narrowed it down to the Women’s Fold-Over Lounge Gauchos in grey or brown. After consulting our thoughts, she decided upon the grew. They looked super cute on her elegant body.

All in all, my experience shopping for Old Navy products was amazing! I do not say that lightly, as it has always been difficult for me to find clothes that fit my body size, style, and pocketbook. I highly recommend Old Navy’s Active Gear to everyone. They have just about everything one may need for the total work-out experience. I will be wearing my Fold-Over Yoga Pants with great pride!

Thank you Crowdtap for choosing me for this wonderful opportunity! For those readers who do not know what I am speaking of, head over to http://www.crowdtap.com/ for your own chance to review products and clothes for free while earning points and cash for your favorite charities.

His Wonderful Works

What has God redeemed you from? When was the last time you shared the goodness of God with someone in sorrow or discouragement? What is your testimony of God's goodness in your life? In hard times and sorrow, one finds it easy to keep thinking about all the horrid things going on in life.

Time to flip that bad boy over ya all!! Yes, I said Ya all...thats what happens when I move from North Carolina to Oklahoma ! Hehe..

Moving along, lets look at the patterns in the scriptures found in Psalms 107....read through them....can you see what I see?

Psalms 107:1-2

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is Good! For His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so! Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.

Verse 6-9 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses And He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city for a dwelling place. Oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. For HE satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Verses 13-16 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains in pieces. Oh that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men.

Verses 19-21 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He sent HIS word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. Oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men.

Verse 43 Whoever is wise will observe these things and they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.

Okay, as a woman, the first thing I noticed is all the crying! I have shed many tears the past few days, as the "horrid of life" has tried to distract me. I have cried out to Him, blown my nose for Him, and snotted all over my Bible.

The second thing here, is that GOD DOES REPLY! His response may be a word of love, a feeling of peace, joy, or even just a fatherly shoulder to cry on. Those who cry out to God, do so because they need Him, love Him, and know that He will respond to their cry. Our heavenly Father, NEVER REJECTS those who cry out to Him.

Thirdly, he sets us free from whatever has enslaved us, captured us, or worried us. Now this is the hard part. WE HAVE NO CONTROL as to HOW He does this for us. He is so creative, that His answers are always fitted to help us in our time of need and place of life. We may not like the way His answer looks, but despite that, out of His best for our lives, He has delivered us!

Fourthly, our response to his deliverance is one of humble thankfulness, not complaining or angry that we didn't get our way, or see our answer! Ouch! We know that complaining leads to a life of wandering in cycles of dysfunction and a loss of purpose. Lets not even go there! Although our response may not be joyful or loud, our thankful attitude brings a quicker change to our future, and how we handle new responsibilities.

In HIM I move, In Him I live, in Him a I have my being...

blessings!

Jessica

Stand Your Ground and Take Your Stand

Since the last time I posted here a lot of things have changed. We moved into a small duplex, my husband and I are both working on our doctoral degrees, we have another truck, and my hubby got a job. The house will be gone by December of this year, and through all the heart ache and changes, one thing we have had to do is stand.

What does this mean, to "take your stand"?

Taking it from a dictionary the word "stand" means the following:

a : to support oneself on the feet in an erect position

b: to take up or maintain a specified position or posture

c : to occupy a place or location

d : to gather slowly and remain

e : to remain valid or efficacious the order given last week still stands

f : to endure or undergo successfully

The phrase "Stand Your Ground" is a battle metaphor. To stand and fight to defend the ground on which you stood rather than to run and give up ground to the enemy as he approached was to do the brave or honorable thing, and sometimes it was the difference between a military defeat and a military victory.

There are many opportunities in life every day that we can either choose to run away from responsibility or embrace it. Both of those decisions have consequences that will continue to reproduce themselves in the future. An example of this can be the opportunity to brush your teeth everyday, twice a day. Doing so will give you long-lasting healthy, white teeth. Failure to brush your teeth will cause infection, discoloration, and loss of teeth at an early age. Running away from responsibility brings about hardship for future generations as well. Your children will feel the consequences of your choice to ignore responsibility, either by emotional pain, or following in the same decision patterns.

Standing your ground means that you do not even have the choice to give up, back down, or run away, those things do not exist to you. What does exist is your faithfulness to stay in your position, place, and property until the next thing happens. Standing and staying responsible for the daily things in life entitle God to give us more to be responsible for. Our willingness to be mature and choose resilience over running opens the door for further advancement and responsibility in the kingdom.

Through out my work in counseling clients I hear more often than not, "But it would just be easier to give up and stay the way I am than to change." Although this may be true, it leads to a path of destruction, laziness and abuse of boundaries. I always respond with, "Then you don't need to be here with me because you are wasting my time and your money. Your proof is in your pursuit, if you really want to change you will put something into it." This usually works and change happens as the client invests and takes a stand against their past patterns of________(you fill in the blank).

Below are a list of scriptures that have been my encouragement the past few months and what God has shown me.

Exodus 33:21Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.

When there were times I wanted to give up and not do anything because the path I was walking led to heartache and anger, God shared with me that I can choose to stand on Christ, of whom is my rock, my firm foundation. I turned my feelings over the Him and felt the load leave.

Deuteronomy 11:25No man will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.

As calls poured in for people wanting money I didn't have, God showed up that He is for me, and NOONE is against me. He has turned my mourning into dancing.

Joshua 7:10The LORD said to Joshua, "Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?

How easy is it to sit down for a moment only to realize that it turned into a pity party? I found myself saying," No one understands what I am going through, I am all alone in this, What good is it going to do just to get up and pray again?" It is in these moments when the enemy wants to make the situation all about you and make you forget about what God has done, is doing, and is going to do to help you along the way. In this aspect God was telling Joshua, Get off your butt, stop being distracted and see, hear and know what I have for you!

2 Samuel 22:34He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.

There will be times when the only way to go is up, and it is in those times we see Who it is that is holding us up away from the turmoil of life.

Samuel 23:12 But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory.

This is a great example of standing ground and keeping the enemy off your land! He is under your foot, and he is just a mouse with a microphone wanting to tell you to run away, yet we have already won so keep standing and staying in the position of victory!

Psalm 20:8They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.

This reminds me of a teeter-totter in that when God defeats the enemy He raises us up and we stand firm in our victory.

Psalm 26:12My feet stand on level ground; in the great assembly I will praise the LORD.

It seems that standing may be a boring thing to do, yet in reality there more action to it than you think!! Standing your ground also involves a lot of moving around, being aware of your surroundings, listening for a call of battle or change, and even more so praising the Lord for the battle has already been won. If you stay distracted while standing you will miss your call of change. Remain focused, alert and in position for whatever may come next!

Psalm 33:11But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

Oh how sweet this is, that even when my plans and choices have failed, His steadfast plans for my life stand firm and true.

1 Corinthians 15:58Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

As stewards of God's Kingdom we are given the authority to remain in His Grace and Favor over our lives. Making decisions out of Godly Wisdom and not out of our emotions shows God our rate of maturity and willingness to obey. God created us with emotions, but our His spirit to guide us with His wisdom, not our own swaying feelings and thoughts.

Ephesians 6:13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

There will seasons of life where you have done all you can, thought all you can, cried all you can, ran all you can, prayed all you can, asked all you can, knocked all you can, paid all you can, saved all you can, pushed all you can and after you have put on God's armor, you STAND. Standing in God's favor, promise and letting Him show you when its time to walk forward!!! And yes...it is possible to stand and walk at the same time..thats another blog post. Until then....STAND YOUR GROUND!!!!

Blessings,

Jessica Smith

Light Affliction

Sitting in my car (seems like God talks a lot to me while in the car) at a stop light. I tapped my fingers restlessly while looking at other people in their vehicles. Thoughts of the past few months whipped in my head. Let's see, we've had four buyers for our house, all of whom have walked away. We have had the house on the market over a year trying to do short-sells. My husband has applied to so many jobs and is constantly rejected over and over, and now we have one month to move out and find a rental home. On and on the thoughts had processed into my mind as I waited and waited at the red light. Why on earth was everything a constant wait, or rejection? That's when God spoke to my heart.

"Jessica, what are you doing?"

"Waiting at a red stop-light."

"Why are you waiting?"

"Because the light is red."

"Jessica, what would happen to you right now if you were to run that light while it's red?"

Glancing up I notice a large semi-truck zoom through the intersection.

"I would have been hit and killed by that truck."

"Jessica, right now you have a destination in mind, and its painful to have to wait. Right now you are at a stop-light not just waiting, but I am protecting you. If you were to run ahead of me, you would be seriously injured. I am protecting you from something far greater than you understand right now."

"Wow, Father, I never thought of that before."

"And Jessica how long do you have to wait at a stop-sign?"

"Not very long."

"But for a moment."

Armed with new revelation, as I went to church last night to work with our college and career students, my husband delivered a powerful message called, "Hanging By a Comma". Needless to say it came out his broken spirit and humble attitude. One of the verses he shared was:

2 Corinthians 4:17 (New King James Version)

17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Oh my! God kept speaking...and He has a sense of humor too. For our LIGHT AFFLICTION, which is BUT FOR A MOMENT, is WORKING FOR US a FAR MORE EXCEEDING and eternal weight of glory.

Really, How awesome is God? Although we may desire to be where we know we should be know, until our character and maturity match or vision, we cannot hold it's weight. Being processed in the waiting periods of our lives is necessary to bear the weight of our destination.

Yes, we may not understand this issue with the house and finances, or why everything we have knocked on has come to say no. But for a moment.......

Blessings,

Jessica Smith