The Bullocks would like to wish all of our friends and family a very merry Christmas! I have been saying each year, “this is the year we are GOING to do Christmas cards” and thus far that project never seems to make the budget cut so praise the Lord for an awesome “blog card” to both tell you how much we love each of you and to show off adorable pictures of our sweet baby boy and his new Christmas wagon. I did think I should take full advantage of this prepaid postage and send you a family update as well. As you can tell, Cross is about as cute and sweet as any child could be. He really is doing great and any day we have a healthy baby is a good day. He is taking several steps, but certainly not walking on his own just yet. We have no teeth and are most fond of balls (not by Daddy’s wishes we are certain, it really was natural), puppies, and music. The music one I am interested to see where that leads because it will be a supernatural gifting if it is there, certainly not heredity. I think it could have something to do with Daniel Doss (Grace’s worship leader) being pumped into the womb for 9 months. The child just knows talent when he hears it! We have no real words yet, he says momma and dada and nana but he seems to have no clue that we are any of those words although my mom seems to be rather certain the nana is for her (as she should be)!
We are back in Clarksville and praising the Lord every day that we are home. This has been a tough season and I think that I have said this before, but it was probably best that I did not have internet access very often because if I had blogged everyday you guys would have most certainly called Jeremy and demanded that I be omitted and I wish I could say I were joking. Between life changes, job changes, 1st trimester pregnancy, a little toddler who was/is into everything, being stuck at home, and having little to no mommy time (because I bought into satan’s lie of guilt for leaving or taking help), I was on the verge of breaking. I once heard Beth Moore say that when someone asks if she has had a good day she says “any day that I get a word from the Lord is a good day” and I thought to myself, “wow, I wish that were the way I functioned” mine sounds a little more like “any day I get my way is a good day” for sure. Well, lately, I am finding that any day that I hear a word from the Lord is not just a good day, it is life. I am realizing more and more that this season of refining that Jeremy and I are going through is just as beneficial or certainly more to our future than any season of blessing could have been. I know I need refining, that is an easy one, I hear myself think and that alone could take a life time to work out, but my man on the other hand, I rarely see something that would take such a monumental season of stripping to work out. But I know because he is human that it is there and that we serve a God who is willing to work it out. I have cried out to the Lord often over these past few months and said “Jeremy is a godly man, bless him, why are you holding back your blessings from him” and the Lord always answers me “because I want to make him MORE of a godly man”. Well, who can argue with that, I am willing to settle for great, but the Potter is driven to awesome!
So our family, as of today, is really doing great. I have come out of what I now refer to as the “stay at home mom funk”. I feel so much better physically that mentally is starting to catch up. I have an appointment in January to find out if we are having a boy or a girl and I promise you guys will be the first to know. We are due to receive our next blessing June 16th and Grace Community has enough pregnant women right now that the nursery is going to explode. I see God’s hand in new life all around and it makes me ecstatic to see what calling He has for each of these precious lives He has ordained to enter this world.
And to answer the most popular question I get asked these days, “sooooooooo, what are you guys doing”; in a nut shell, we have no clue what we are doing. The Lord has told us two things, well I guess three over these last few months, “resign from our church in North Carolina, move to Clarksville, and then trust Him”. I wish I could tell you more, but that is really all I know for now. Thanks to wonderful families who bless us each year financially for Christmas our bills are certainly paid so please don’t worry about us financially. I would say our greatest struggle right now has little to do with the finances and more to do with the millions of unknowns. But there again, the “trust Him” enters. A girlfriend said you are learning “one day at a time” to a science and she is so right. We could live in Clarksville for 6 more months, 6 more weeks, or 6 more years. We could have our next step tomorrow or it could take some time. Here is what I do know without a shadow of a doubt that our Lord provides for us. He will provide what we need, when we need it and He does not mind watching us remain humble or grow humble, He does not mind developing our faith, and He knows all the fruit of the Spirit that we so desperately need to have developed in order to carry out our purpose.
So, is today a good day, absolutely, even from the moment that I opened my Bible Study this morning I have gotten more than just a word from Him, I have gotten several. I am studying Beth Moore’s Esther and the first sentence I read was “You see, even your current location is part of the set-up for your kingdom destiny.” I don’t know much, but I know that we are in Clarksville for such a time as this and I am bound and determined that we are going to be fruitful, not defeated, while we are here. Eph 1:11 says we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. Beth says, “These realizations should be stunning and marvelous to us, exploding our lives with significance.” And then she goes on to say that had Esther not chosen to step up to the plate that she would have missed her place in divine destiny.
I am choosing today to tell satan to shut up when he says this is all miserable and meaningless. My man has a mighty calling on his life and if we are not obedient today in the wait, we “could be left out of a divine loop that could one day mean everything to us.”
Our pastors at Grace could have chosen to give up when the going got tough (and I assure you that tough is a vast understatement) and if they had, they wouldn’t have gotten to witness hundreds of adults at church last Sunday experiencing a true celebration of the birth of Christ. Every time you hear or read the testimony of someone who the Lord has used in a radical way, they have a story like ours, one of waiting, one of vast unknowns, one that required the faith they would need to fulfill their calling and that I pray is what will be said of us.
So friends and family this Christmas, please, please don’t buy into satan’s lies that this God life isn’t worth it, that He only has great things in store for “certain people”. If you are a child of God, you are apart of a royal priesthood and Eph 1:11 applies to you just as much as it applies to us. I cried and cried Sunday as I was reminded of the virgin birth that paved the way for my forgiven sin and thus my purposeful destiny. For me this year, Christmas is about a secured hope for my family’s future because of the birth and eventual death of Jesus.
With the greatest love for each of you!
The Bullocks!
No comments:
Post a Comment