winners, poetry and job situation update

First things first - 

 

Congratulations to Becca on winning the $20 Dayspring coupon code! Becca, if you're reading this, I'll be emailing you soon! Becca said she'd love to get Ann Voskamp's 365 journal or the cross I received. I think either would be a great choice :)  

Speaking of Ann, I woke up at 3:36 this morning and, not for a lack of trying, could not go back to sleep.  Well eventually I decided to look at the posts in my Reader on my phone and Ann had linked up to this video. If you are a single guy or gal, or if you appreciate poetry, you must. watch. this. A friend and I were talking last week about how stinkin' cool it is that God made everyone different and gave different people various talents and gifts. I believe this woman is definitely using those gifts! I'm pretty sure I'd never be cool enough to go to a poetry slam {is that even what they're called?} and I just think it's the funniest thing how they give snaps for applause. Makes me want to watch Legally Blonde.

Snap Cup? Anybody? 

So, I was most definitely watching that video and giving her mental snaps from the comfort of my bed at about 4:30 this morning. 

Thank you so much for the prayers for the job situation. {I can't figure out what to call it. Suggestions?} I have a couple of leads and there's one job that I think I would just enjoy tremendously and the possibilities just make me all happy dance on the inside wondering what God could do with me in that sort of position, but above all, I want His will. Even if that means Rebekah doesn't see the exact purpose in the beginning. 

Referring to myself in the third person? I think that's "I've been up since 3:36 this morning" talking.

Your prayers are coveted. Most assuredly. I officially have less than two weeks left. My last day is next Friday {May 6th}. Keep 'em going y'all. Keep. 'Em. Going. 

Lastly, y'all please be in prayer for the Stamper family. April Stamper, 17, passed away after a car accident last Friday night. It was prom night at two of the local high schools and they were on their way home after going to town to get ice cream. She, the other passenger, and the driver of the vehicle they were in were being completely responsible teenagers when a woman driving the wrong way down the highway ran into them head-on. I read a Facebook status update about a wreck on the highway about 10:30 and then I heard a helicopter not 5 minutes later. Helicopters around these parts are never good things and I knew someone was being care-flighted to Tupelo. I cannot even begin to imagine the heartache and loss her family and friends are going through. Please please please lift these up in prayer. Many of the students I work with at church on Wednesday nights went to school with April and were her good friends. I know they and the families of the others involved in the accident would appreciate all the prayer they can get. You can read more about the accident here. 

Thanks for praying y'all. It accomplishes so much. I think it's one of the greatest gifts God has given Believers. Use it for His glory. 

JRU Cross Review {and a GIVEAWAY}!!!!!

A couple of weeks ago I arrived home to find a big brown box from DaySpring on my front porch and suddenly I remembered, EEEEEE, it must be my product to review for (in)courage's April Inspired Deals!!

Well you better believe that I didn't even take my purse off my shoulder before I ripped into that box to see what pretty pretty I had received to review! And lucky for me it was the Everyday Faith Handmade Cross from Studio JRU!!

Me. Likey. 

The beautiful dark wooden cross is just heavy enough to let you know it's made of good stuff but not too heavy that you'd be able to grab it off the wall and defend yourself in some kind of hand-to-hand combat. 

Because, really, why would you grab it anyway? 

Another reason I love it {apart from the sheer beauty, because...duh.} is the blue-ish with some brown-ish color on the background of the cross matches about every single piece of furniture I own perfectly. 

And the words?  

Love the words.

I don't remember these words often enough. 

The only problem I ran into was trying to decide where to put it. And let's face it, that's not a problem with the cross, that's a problem with the dummy typing this. 

My first thought? My cross wall.

And just in case you're wondering, those crosses aren't crooked. I promise. {Promise.} This is just evidently a really weird angle to take this picture from. And you might also be thinking, your cross wall is kinda...ummm...bare isn't it? 

You'd be correct. I bought those two crosses for less than $10 {combined} and I have to really like a cross to spend money on it. I'm young. Give me time. 

So I grabbed my hammer and a nail and went to work. But not before taking a picture. {Nerd.} And this was LATE Monday evening and I'm quite proud of my hair. Looking good for it to be 10:30 p.m.

Well, I think I've lived in this house long enough to forget that those two nails where the crosses are already hanging came courtesy of whoever lived there before. I did not hammer those nails in. And I did not hammer this nail  in because goodness gracious it was super hard. I tried for approximately 10 minutes before giving up and deciding the cross had to go somewhere else. {sad}. 

My next choice was my mantle. And as you can see, the mantle needs some livening up. 

Once I took this picture I realized how 'off' my mantle really was. It's all Tally McTallerson on the left side and Shorty McShorterson on the right. So...

Voila. I like the pretty cross better than the old tin container that I bought for $2.00 at a yard sale that's full of movie ticket and concert stubs and the like. After looking at this picture, I'm thinking I may even switch the cross and the green bird. Move the tallness over a ltitle bit more. 

So there you have it. My home was beautified by this attractive piece of hand-crafted art.

And now you're like, "Oh Rebekah, I want one." aren't you? 

You're in LUCK! 

Dayspring has given me a $20 coupon code for one of YOU to win!! Aren't they the best?  

To enter, visit the DaySpring online store. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite DaySpring item 

{or two, or three, or five. Good luck narrowing it down} :) 

You can get additional entries by:

{1} Visit the Studio JRU store and tell me which gorgie-poo item you'd buy by commenting on this post. (one entry)

{2} Subscribe to The Most Random of Random by clicking right over there --> (one entry)

{3} Tweet or share this giveaway post on Facebook. (one entry) 

4 ways to win! Leave a separate comment for each way you enter. 

Comments will close at 11:59 p.m. (CST) Saturday, April 23rd. 

I'll choose a winner using Random.org and announce it Monday, April 25th. 

If you win, shipping charges will apply to whatever cute loot you decide to buy with your coupon. 

Because I'm all for full disclosure - I received the products mentioned in this post for free from DaySpring solely for the purpose of reviewing and hosting a giveaway. All opinions expressed above are mine and mine alone.  

Best of luck to all of you!! 

on fear.

Thanks for all your sweet words of encouragement and prayer in response to Monday's post. I appreciate them more than I could ever put into words.

I think any time you put out there something like that, the Devil sees a PRIMO opportunity to attack. I think he says something like, "Oh yeah? You have faith God's gonna provide? Well...watch this." and WHAM. He hits you with fear.

This morning, I was inconspicuously reading an article that Lifeway tweeted on one married couple's journey through job loss and the fear just SWOOSHED DOWN ON ME.

What if that's me? What if God doesn't provide a job in 30 days. Am I going to believe He'll provide in some other way? Just the fear that it wouldn't possibly go down the way I want it to go down had me almost in tears.

I know, ridiculous.

I cried out in prayer. Lord save me from this unbelief. I then proceeded to read through some Facebook status updates and read this:

"There is NO WORD for "coincidence" in the Hebrew! Lord You are in control today, You were in control yesterday, and You'll be in control tomorrow! I pray for my family, and any of my FB friends today that are struggling to believe in the midst of pressure & confusion! Be encouraged today! "Without FAITH it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God!" (Rom. 8:28; James 1:1-8;16-18;Mark 6:47-52; Prov. 3:5-6)"

Without faith it is impossible to please God? That's part of Hebrews 11:6. And if I only memorized one scripture when doing Beth Moore's 'Believing God' Bible study last year...that. was. it. It's the verse that showed up every day for a week in the most random places. Not even kidding. 

And then right before I went to lunch, I read this in another friend's status update:
 

"God is weaving a story of His power in our lives. He won't fail us. The Lord is batting a thousand in the category of faithfulness. Contrary to others' opinions or our fears, we aren't about to be His first "oops." As Chuck Swindoll encourages, "God has never missed a runway through all the centuries of fearful fog." - From the book "Finding God's Will" ~ Gregg Matte"

Everywhere I looked I was seeing God saying, "Rebekah - Stop. Being. Full. Of. Fear. Stop it." 

So I went to lunch and decided to look up the word "fear" in my concordance and read some Scripture that had to do with fear. I passed through the "do not fear's" in Deuteronomy and I saw something in Psalm 27. Now, I have to tell you, I think Psalm 27 may be my favorite Psalm. I mentioned verses 13 and 14 back in this post. And...it's just some goodness. 


You know how some Bible's have a little heading over chapters in the text? Well, mine does. For Psalm 27? 

"An Exuberant Declaration of Faith"

Yessirree. David was saying, I will have faith. I will not fear. Because God is faithful. 

Psalm 27 

 ¹ The LORD is my light and my salvation;
         Whom shall I fear?
         The LORD is the strength of my life;
         Of whom shall I be afraid?
 ² When the wicked came against me
         To eat up my flesh,
         My enemies and foes,
         They stumbled and fell.
 ³ Though an army may encamp against me,
         My heart shall not fear;
         Though war may rise against me,
         In this I will be confident.
        
 ⁴ One thing I have desired of the LORD,
         That will I seek:
         That I may dwell in the house of the LORD
         All the days of my life,
         To behold the beauty of the LORD,
         And to inquire in His temple.
 ⁵ For in the time of trouble
         He shall hide me in His pavilion;
         In the secret place of His tabernacle
         He shall hide me;
         He shall set me high upon a rock.
        
 ⁶ And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;
         Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;
         I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.
        
 ⁷ Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice!
         Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
 ⁸ When You said, “Seek My face,”
         My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”
 ⁹ Do not hide Your face from me;
         Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
         You have been my help;
         Do not leave me nor forsake me,
         O God of my salvation.
 ¹⁰ When my father and my mother forsake me,
         Then the LORD will take care of me.
        
 ¹¹ Teach me Your way, O LORD,
         And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
 ¹² Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
         For false witnesses have risen against me,
         And such as breathe out violence.
 ¹³ I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
         That I would see the goodness of the LORD
         In the land of the living.
          

¹⁴ Wait on the LORD;
         Be of good courage,
         And He shall strengthen your heart;
         Wait, I say, on the LORD!

I just think God is so cool how He hears our hearts cry to Him and He wants to answer us. He put the thoughts in those people's heads this morning to post that on their Facebook. He knew that I would be overcome with fear for a little while. He knew that I check Facebook way too often and would see their status updates. He knew all. these. things. And if He knows all these things, why do I doubt that He knows what will happen on May 9th. My needs then?  

I am a silly frail girl and He is a not silly strong God. 

I just wanted to remind you of that today.

because i know you're wondering. maybe.

Last Tuesday I posted this status update on Facebook.

And man alive, did I start getting the texts and the messages asking me what's up with that? What's going on?

So...this is an attempt to condense something that's really long and the past four months or so of my life into something that you can read and won't want to scrape your eyeballs out after having done so. :)

So...you only have your job for 30 more days? 
Yep. Something like that. It's more like...25 days now. Mind you this happened a week ago.  My dad asked the question, "So you don't have a job in 30 days?"

My answer? I don't have this job in 30 days. I truly believe God will provide whatever job I'm supposed to have.

What's the deal? Do you not like your job? Do you not like the people you work with?
Short answer? The past 4 months or so God and I have been having some major convos. For anyone that's met me in real life, you know I'm a people person. I love me some people. They don't even have to like me, and I like them. I just think they're the coolest. My current job has about zero percent interaction with people {besides my co-workers}. I like accounting, I just like people more. And so I feel He's calling me to something that has to do with people. I'm not sure if accounting will be involved or not.

And I do like the people I work with. I don't just like them, I love them. They are fun and caring and I never knew your co-workers could be your family. So...don't think that I'm leaving because of them. They rock. I will miss them terribly. And I will visit. I'm sure.

So what are you going to be doing? 
Ummm....good question.

No seriously, that is not an answer. What are you going to be doing? 
I don't exactly know. My guess is since God has put this huge desire in my heart to work with people and have an impact on their lives for His glory, that it'll be something with people. In what capacity you ask? No clue. Teaching accounting? Working on a church staff {in a collegiate or women's ministry role?}? Being a secretary? Working at the local Christian bookstore? Be a back up singer for someone awesome? These are all things that have gone through my head. But I truly, truly, do not know.

Are you staying in Mississippi? 
I have no idea. I'd like to stay in Mississippi. I love my people here. I love my church family. I love my real actual family. I love them all. If God had me move away, I'd be sad at the beginning but I know it'd be better for me because He wants that. And His ways are best.

Are you freaking out?
Well...when my manager and I first had the conversation that brought this about a week and a half ago, I have to say that I didn't know it would all go down like this. That this is the way God was leading me into whatever He has next for me. That being said, the first weekend that I knew about this, I had about a bajillion bumps pop up on my chin and a few mouth ulcers that HURT.. {TMI? Maybe. Moving on.}My dad used to say those were caused by worry, but I think it has more to do with stress. Those have died down. Thankfully. And I've tried to take that fear of the unknown and place it at the cross every time it pops up. Sometimes it's an every 5 minutes thing and other days it's a once a day thing. But I don't think I've had a "complete meltdown, my life is over and God has forsaken me" kind of thing.

How are you not completely freaking out? You have bills to pay. You might be crazy and should get checked out by a mental health professional. 
First off? Rude! Secondly, I've kept going back to God's sovereignty. He rules over everything. He holds everything together. Everything I go through is for my good and His glory. He will not forsake me. He has plans for me. He will finish what He started in me. He is faithful. Acknowledging those things? Giving Him credit for bringing me to this so He can bring me through this {thanks Priscilla}? They've all helped tremendously.

I went to a conference last weekend and on the bus ride up we watched a video on the story of JJ Jasper and the loss of his 5 yr old son. When breaking the news of his son's death to his oldest daughter, he told her something to the affect of "you have to cling to every good thing you know about God and His Son, Jesus Christ." I guess that's what I'm doing. Do I think the loss of a job is equivalent to losing a child? By no means. But, we all have our battles. For the time being, this is mine.

What can I do besides ask questions? 
Pray. That I would continue to seek God, that I'd continue to have the faith to believe He will work everything out, for the fear to roll away, for discernment. I dunno, whatever you feel like praying for I guess :)

What's your favorite reality show - DWTS or AI?
DWTS. Hands down. I never knew I'd love that show so much. It's all my sister and mother's fault. I'm pulling for Ralph and Kirstie this season. And Hines. That guy is full of LIFE and SHOWMANSHIP. And I love it.

Love it.

Got more questions? Fire away in the comments.  I'll think about answering. ;)

P.S. I heard this song for the first time this weekend and the bridge has been stuck in my head. It's true ya know. Very true.