Day 4 of recovery. I'm up and dressed and feeling good! Still moving very slow. here are some pictures and a message for my friends and family. It's snowing today!!!!
The coffee Loy makes for me every morning
Loy getting me breakfast and taking good care of me
A self portrait of me recovering after surgery
The wonderful flowers Shellee and Adam sent me
The flowers are so me.This is why. This is the only way I know how to express why I am getting a tubal reversal. If you can't understand after reading this I don't know how to communicate it and that causes me anguish because I do want my family and friends to understand. A couple things I want to say.
#1 This is not about having another baby although that is the natural outcome of a tubal reversal and a natural desire for any woman in any stage of life. This is about obeying God. Did God tell me "Diane, thou shalt get a tubal reversal"? No, He told me 14 years ago to trust Him on the number of kids He gives us. Actually He wants me to trust Him and give Him control of every area of my life - not just the number of children I have. I did not trust Him and it has taken me this long to put this work, this action with the faith or trust He has developed in me over the last 14 years.
#2 This is not about me and what I want. This is about serving the God I love. This is about living my life with my eyes on eternity not on me and my wants and comfort.
#3 This isn't about me and my abilities. This is about trusting God with who He has made me to be and depending on His strength to live my life and accomplish the work He has planned from the beginning of time for me to do. He made me to do good works in His strength. I am just beginning to trust Him and follow Him, even though I have believed in Him for about 30 years.
Psalms 127:3
Behold, Children are a gift of the Lord The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Proverbs 3:5,6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.
Eph.2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Chrits Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Gal. 2:20
" I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me."
John 5:30
" I can do nothing on my own initiative. As I hear, I judge, and my judgement is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me."
Gal 5:16
So I say, live by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.
Rom. 8:5
For those who are according to the flesh set there minds on the things of the flesh, but thoes who are according to the spirit, set their minds on the things of the spirit.
Col. 3:1-7
If then you have been raised up with Christ keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life, is revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, and in them you also once walked when you lived in them.
Col. 3:23-25
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for man knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve for he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.
Rom. 12:1-2
I urge you therefore, brethrn, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Heb. 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
James 2:14
What use is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
James 2:17-26
Even, so faith if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may say, "You have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works faith was perfected. And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." And he was called the friend of God. You see a man is justified by works, and not faith alone. And in the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works, when she received the messangers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead!
James 4
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wag war in your members? You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adultresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enamy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us?" But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourself in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you. Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy, but who are you to judge your neighbor? Come now you who say, "Today or tomorrow we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life with be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this and that." But as it is you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. Therefore to the one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Eph.2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Chrits Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Gal. 2:20
" I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me."
John 5:30
" I can do nothing on my own initiative. As I hear, I judge, and my judgement is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me."
Gal 5:16
So I say, live by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.
Rom. 8:5
For those who are according to the flesh set there minds on the things of the flesh, but thoes who are according to the spirit, set their minds on the things of the spirit.
Col. 3:1-7
If then you have been raised up with Christ keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life, is revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, and in them you also once walked when you lived in them.
Col. 3:23-25
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for man knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve for he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.
Rom. 12:1-2
I urge you therefore, brethrn, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Heb. 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
James 2:14
What use is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
James 2:17-26
Even, so faith if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may say, "You have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works faith was perfected. And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." And he was called the friend of God. You see a man is justified by works, and not faith alone. And in the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works, when she received the messangers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead!
James 4
What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wag war in your members? You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adultresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enamy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us?" But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you doubleminded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourself in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you. Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the Law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy, but who are you to judge your neighbor? Come now you who say, "Today or tomorrow we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life with be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this and that." But as it is you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. Therefore to the one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.
John 14:16-25
"And I will ask the FAther, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live you shall also live. In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose myself to him.
Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us, and not to the world?"
Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you."
I have to stop here but the fact is that on every page of the Bible I can find a reason for having faith in God, giving God control, and trusting God. Family and friends, this is the best I can do to communicate and respond to your comments and concerns. I was at peace and knew that God loved me before the surgery and I am at peace and know that God loves me after the surgery. Nothing has changed except that I am taking steps of faith.
