Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
Through the weekly and daily devotionals you can be constantly encouraged in your great role of parenting, the highest career in the nation. You can also stay updated on what's happening with the Above Rubies ministry.
VASECTOMY CAUSED PROBLEMS
When I was a young mother of two children I was given a stack of Above Rubies magazines. I gleaned messages from each magazine that were valuable to my life at the time. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have a large family or homeschool.The Lord saved my husband's soul when my third born son, Isaiah (God is Salvation) was born and God led us to surrender our family size to Him. We kept building our wall. My sixth child, Nehemiah was born in 2019, and that year God gave my husband the gift of sobriety.
Nehemiah, and our seventh born, Jeremiah, were such difficult babies. My husband decided we would have one last girl, and he would get a vasectomy. Baby eight was a delightful little boy, Elijah Zion.
In spring of 2024 we welcomed our beautiful little Zinniah Blossom—our one last girl and my husband scheduled his vasectomy. With the finality of sterility, my heart ached for the children we would never meet. I held the conviction to allow God to create with our bodies so near to my heart.
I was advised by people much wiser to submit to my husband. He was a good man, of sober mind, and who loved the Lord. I tried to make my heart obey but it would not, and I threw the tantrum of my life when the month of his surgery came around.
We fought. I tried to hurt him with my words as badly as his decision was hurting me. It created a huge chasm in our marriage. A few weeks after his vasectomy my husband started having side effects that completely destroyed our sex life. These symptoms worsened as the weeks went by.
We went to counseling to work on the issues that stirred up this trial. We prayed together every single night without fail. The Lord answered us with a unified direction for my husband to have a vasectomy reversal.
During this time my husband decided to donate to Above Rubies for the first time and shortly after the most recent magazine, #102, was mailed to me. I couldn't believe that the first time my husband donated to this ministry was to put an issue about vasectomy reversals into my hands. What a blessed comfort each and every story was to my soul.
At Christmas, just four months after his initial vasectomy he had a reversal. God allowed us to schedule at the perfect time for my husband's work with the surgeon we felt was the best choice. The entire process was such a deep valley with so much provision from God.
My husband is now healed of all the side effects that destroyed our marriage bed. He is so proud that we are expecting a little baby soul from our Lord this Thanksgiving, our 10th baby that I never thought I'd have the privilege to carry.
The Lord fought this battle for me in entirety. I didn't need to force my will on my husband. God's will cannot be thwarted. Now as we stand on this mountain, I cannot believe I'm writing this. We are better than before. Our love is covered in daily prayer, and we have surrendered our will to our Father God.
CHELSIE PANELLA
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin
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Picture: Michael and Chelsie with the beautiful children God has given to them.
