Born in Missouri, Dr. Deborah Craton grew up in Bedford, Indiana, and was in the last graduating class of the old Bedford High School. She did her undergraduate work at David Lipscomb College (now Lipscomb University) in Nashville, Tennessee, and received her M.D. degree from Indiana University Medical School in Indianapolis. After fulfilling a residency program in Gadsden, Alabama, she and her family moved back to Bedford, where she has practiced family medicine since 1984. She married John Craton, a classical music composer, in 1978, and they have been married now for 40 years. Together they have three grown sons, two daughters-in-law, several cats, and a number of grand cats.”
January 2025
Last year I took a little quiz and discovered that my word for 2024 was “simplify.” I think I simplified some aspects of my life, but not all.
A similar quiz has given me the word “abide” to focus on this year. Abide is one of those words we read in the Bible but rarely hear in everyday life. I went to DICTIONARY.COM and found a couple of definitions and synonyms to help me better understand what it means to “abide.”
1) to remain; continue; stay:
Abide with me.
Synonyms: tarry
2) to continue in a particular condition, attitude, relationship, etc.; last.
When I read those definitions, a few different Scriptures come to mind.
First, John 15:5 speaks about abiding or remaining in Christ. HE is the source of life. The branch can not bear fruit with vine. The fruit we are to bear is found in Galatians 5:22-23. Christ is the source of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The world would have us believe that these qualities are innate, but they are not. Look at any toddler and you will notice that without guidance from an adult they would not truly know how to share, be kind, love another or control their tempers. To abide in Christ is to stay in touch with HIS love, kindness, compassion, His Spirit.
The second definition of abide is similar to the first in that it talks about continuing but when you look at the synonym, persevere, then it seems different. Abiding, persevering, means persisting or enduring and, according to Romans 5:3-4, perseverance helps build character and ultimately hope! Peter combines Paul’s thoughts from Galatians and Romans when he says in II Peter1:5-7:
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.
One more idea concerning “abide”….It is an active verb. It is not “one and done” but it is ongoing. Both definitions convey the idea of being active. Remain…stay…tarry…endure…persevere. To abide in Christ is a daily, persistent activity. 24/7, 365.
So as I start 2025, I will continue to work on making my life simpler as I abide in Christ as HE is Vine, the source of all that is good.
February 2025
February has come to be known as HEART HEALTH MONTH. It is probably because of Valentine’s Day, but its a good time to evaluate not just your physical heart health but your spiritual heart health as well.
As a physician, a lot of my time was spent in treating heart disease. In 2023, diseases centered around the heart accounted for 22% of deaths in America. There are numerous aspects to heart disease but they can be summed up by saying there are plumbing issues and electrical issues.
One of the leading causes of death from heart disease is the myocardial infarction…a heart attack which is a plumbing issue. This is when oxygen carried to the heart muscle is cut off leading to the death of the muscle and damaging the heart. The cause of the oxygen being cutoff is usually because an artery in or surrounding the heart has been clogged because of atherosclerosis…hardening of the arteries. The cause is usually high cholesterol. The cholesterol plaques in the artery build and build until one day a blood clot forms, stopping the blood flow, stopping the oxygen, killing the heart muscle.
Some people have warning signs before this happens. This is called angina…chest pain or discomfort that occurs on exertion. Occasionally people say it feels like an elephant on their chest. Others, however, may just have some shortness of breath when they exert themselves and others say they never had any warning.
Another form of heart disease familiar to most people is Atrial Fibrillation, an electrical problem within the heart. AFib, as many call it, is an “irregular irregularity” in the heart beat. The rhythm is always irregular but sometimes the rate is in the normal range (50-100); sometimes the rate is very rapid (greater than 120) and sometimes there are long pauses between the beats causing the heart rate to be very slow (20-40). When the rate is very fast, it can cause dizziness and fainting as well as chest discomfort. If the rate is very slow with long pauses, fainting again may happen or the heart may begin to beat very erratically causing the heart to stop altogether.
When either of these issues are left untreated, the heart muscle begins to be unable to do its job. It has difficulty pumping the blood where it needs to go and it begins to “backup” in places like legs, feet, and lungs. When this happens people experience Congestive Heart Failure (CHF).
Needless to say, heart health is very important.
As a physician, I see similarities between anatomical heart health and a Christian’s heart health….
We allow everyday concerns and activities to clog up our lives preventing the flow of God’s Word and His Love to provide the substance our spiritual heart needs to survive. We take on bitterness, anger, and strife, allowing them to build up in our lives. We allow the devil to get his foothold and try to stop the precious flow of Christ’s saving grace. We usually have warning signs, but as in our physical life, we sometimes ignore the signs.
We, as followers of Christ, sometimes try to do too much. We work on this project and then on that one. Someone else asked us to be involved in another ministry and before long we have are trying to balance it all and there’s not enough time or energy to do anything. We are irregular in Bible study or our prayer life. We feel overwhelmed and so we finally just stop doing anything.
In both these cases when left untreated we can become ineffective. It becomes difficult to live life as we should.
The difference between physical heart health and spiritual heart health is that the Christian has the Great Physician on their side! Christ’s blood covers us as we live each day. HE will give the heart-weary what they need even when they don’t know what to ask for. He has given us HIS WORD and HE send others to lift us and keep us going. As long as we live in the LIGHT, our pump will never fail.
March 2025
Bloom Where You Are
It is all most Spring! It is time for flowers, especially tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths, to start popping up through the ground. Have you noticed that it doesn’t not happen over night?
A few years ago, we traveled to the Netherlands and had the opportunity to visit the Keukenhof Gardens outside of Amsterdam. The gardens are different every year. The patterns of color, the various blossoms, the different arrangements of the flower beds change from year to year. Whether you visit early in the season, around the end of March, or later toward the end of May, every visitor will see beautiful blooming flowers which come mostly from bulbs.
The gardeners plan and plant the gardens in the fall of the year. And, to make sure the visitors can enjoy the beauty throughout the growing season, the gardeners know how to plant the bulbs in such a way that the plants grow and bloom at different times through the three month period.
The bulbs are planted at different depths in the various flower beds! This allows the bulbs, which are of different species, to grow and thrust threw the top soil and then bloom when the gardeners are ready for them to display their glory. They are planted in varying areas of sunlight which allows some species of the various bulbs to bloom earlier than others bulbs. The weather can be unpredictable, but the gardeners know how to anticipate that particular variable, so again the gardens are beautiful year after year. Rarely are tourists, who travel great distances, disappointed in the Keukenhof Gardens.
God is the Master Gardener! HE has planted us where we need to be. HE knows all the variables. HE knows what type soil we are planted in. HE knows the storms we will encounter. HE knows how much nurturing we each take from those around us. God has planted us so we can bloom at the right time.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us there is a time and season for everything under the sun. I Corinthians 3:7 says, “So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” Galatians 5:22ff discusses the fruit of the Spirit and also speaks how we must be in step with with the Spirit, not envying those around us.
Sometimes we look at the activities of others involved in the work of the Lord and become discouraged. We might say “I can’t do that. I don’t have that talent.” But others might be looking at you and saying the same things. Sometimes we might think we need to go far away places to teach God’s Word, but Christ says to “open your eyes…” the fields are ripe where your are.
We are like the bulbs planted in the gardens of Keukenhof. We will bloom when it is our time to bloom; we will have the characteristics that God has given us; we will bloom in the garden where God as placed us.
April 2025
I remember when I was a little girl, sometime in the early 1960s, we were at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s down in Williams, Indiana spending a couple of weeks with them during the summer. This was a time before doppler radar, TV weather alerts or tornado warnings with sirens. One knew to look for storms by listening to weather reports, watching the sky, and feeling the air change.
During the late afternoon that fateful summer, Grandpa had been doing just that: He had listened to the weather on the local radio station, he had been watching the skies and he had felt the air change. Grandpa told Grandma to get my sister and me along with our cousin to the basement and stay until he came to get us. I remember the thunder and the lighting and I remember hearing the pouring rain, but what I remember most was a sudden silence.
Grandma sat with us in the basement until Grandma called from the kitchen to tell us we could come upstairs. I don’t remember much more about that storm except that I watched as Grandpa surveyed the house and the yard. The two huge elm trees that stood in front of the house had been blown down. They fell away from the house.
We were safe and sound; Grandpa had seen to that.
I remember another storm that two friends and I endured while vacationing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina the year after 9/11. We had rented a house for the week that was built on stilts. The car was parked under the house and we had to climb steps to get to the living area. We had been watching the weather because a topical storm seemed to be headed our way.
Subtropical Storm Gustaf came straight toward where we were staying! The wind blew! The rain was torrential! Water was blown under the door of the living area and sand hit the windows! The house swayed under the force of the wind! The storm lasted a couple of hours and then finally moved on up the coast where it gained hurricane strength.
We were safe and sound in the well-built house and in the comfort of each other.
In 1990, Lawrence County experienced a tornado that ripped through the county and hit a trailer court, leaving a swath of destruction and death in its path. We were eating supper that Saturday evening and noticed the southern sky was green in color. The air felt different. As we continued to eat, I started to hear police, fire, and ambulance sirens. I had never heard so many! They did not seem to stop! I finally called the emergency room where I worked. I asked what was happening and received the reply, “Tornado! Lots of wounded! We need you!”
I left the family and drove to the hospital where I spent the rest of the evening and most of the night. I assisted in the ER, in surgery, and I accompanied a pediatric patient in an ambulance to Indianapolis. Meanwhile, nurses cared for the wounded, fellow physicians diagnosed and triaged patients. Volunteers came in and comforted those who had lost so much that night
We lost one precious child to the storm, but everyone worked together to prevent the loss of more lives.
The storms of life are like the storms from the weather… some come suddenly, others give some warning, but they all can leave some type of destruction. But what I learned from the storms I have shared with you is that with the help, comfort, and strength of family, friends and professionals one can weather storms. It is important to remember who has placed those people in our lives to help us: God!
God does not want us to face storms alone. HE knows we need help and support. HE has given some, family—some, friends—and some, professionals. God has not left us alone to face the storms of weather OR the storms of life, alone.
May 2025
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
Ecclesiastes 3:1
Seasons of life— how does one look at seasons of life? I am 69 years old so when looking back should I look at each different decade? That would be seven seasons! Or, should one look at seasons in their life the way insurance companies or or other companies do? You know what I mean…those drop down boxes that give you different grouping of age: 0-18, 19-30, 31-50, 51-65, +65.
Maybe when looking at seasons of your life you might think it’s childhood, school days, work life and then retirement. Another way to look at those categories is the way I was taught in medical school…infancy, toddler, child, adolescent, young adult, adult, middle age, elderly, oldest of the old.
In terms of relationships is another way to look at seasons of one’s life: friendship, puppy love, true love, marriage, parenthood. Or maybe it should be jobs and careers: chores around the house, first job, apprenticeships, internships, lifetime career, retirement. Oh, and then there is, of course, “spring, summer, fall and winter.
As I prepared for writing this essay, all these groupings and a few more came to mind. But regardless of which grouping I thought about, I came to two conclusions.
First, as I look back, each phase—season if you will—of my life has brought joy and sadness; life and death; peace and turmoil. As a child there was disappointments of not being invited to birthday parties but there was the joy of going to Grandma’s in the summer. Teenage years brought excitement of marching band and summer band camp, but it also brought the heartbreak of unrequited love. Years of marriage have seen struggles with learning to live with each other (still working on that after 47 years), but the exhilaration of bringing three little boys into the world and watching them grow. And now, retirement has brought challenges of health and mobility, but the chance to do things unavailable while working. Solomon said it best in the verses in Ecclesiastes when he said there was a time for EVERYTHING.
The second thing I have concluded as I look back on the seasons of my life is that I believe that I can now say with the Apostle Paul, “12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:12-13). Thats is not to say that while going through struggles and difficulties, I did not falter, that I did not doubt, that I did not worry. For I certainly did do all those things…missed stepped, doubted and worried. But, I never stopped believing that God was with me…with us. Even during those dark days of everyone getting pregnant but me, going through a miscarriage, a baby on a ventilator for a week, my parents dying, my medical practice ending sooner than I had anticipated, I never loss hope. I knew God was in control. I knew I could face it all with HIM leading the way, or prodding me from behind, or some days carrying me on HIS shoulders.
Each season brings its own set of challenges; its own set of achievements. We need to be content with whatever comes our way for God is with us!
June 2025
Summer Memories
Since my mother worked nights at the local hospital and slept during the day and Daddy worked for the Forestry Service, my sister and I spent a great deal of time during the summer at my grandparents’ house in a small farming community in Southern Indiana. My parents had both grown up in the community and the small town was named for my grandmother’s family.
My sister and I were usually joined for a couple of weeks in the summer by our younger cousin. There were just the three of us and we were like brother and sisters. Grandma and Grandpa’s neighbor had one son and he had a cousin. Many a summer day the five of us ended up playing together, building blanket forts over the clothesline, playing army, and of course the summer was not complete until we had a mudpie fight over the back fence!
There are so many memories coming from the summers spent at Williams, but some of the best centered around fishing at Uncle Faye’s farm. Uncle Faye was actually my mother’s uncle. He had been married to Grandma’s youngest sister who had passed away at a very young age of TB. Uncle Faye had a farm with a pond. In that pond he stocked catfish. Every morning, he would go out to the pond and corn-feed those fish! He fed them every day except for the day he knew Daddy, Uncle Herschel, Mother, Aunt Dorothy and Grandpa were bringing my sister, my cousin and me fishin’.
We helped dig the worms the night before. Big nightcrawlers were the most desired. The men gathered cane fishing poles and tied them to the cars. Grandma usually packed us a snack and off we went to Martin county.
I loved fishing on those summer days. Daddy, Uncle Herschel or Grandpa baited the hook. They helped cast the line into the pond. I had to wait patiently to watch for the red and white bobber to disappear under the surface of the water and then one of the adults…never Aunt Dorothy or Mother… would help bring the catfish in and take it off the hook. It was great fun! Because Uncle Faye didn’t feed the fish on the day we came, we never had to wait long for a “bite” and rarely did it take much effort to bring the fish to shore. I loved fishing at uncle Faye’s.
When the fishing was done and the fish were cleaned, we headed back to Grandma’s where we had a supper of fresh catfish and fried potatoes! There was probably more, but that’s what I remember eating. It was the best!
Little did I know that fishing was really a little bit harder than it was when we went to Uncle Faye’s. Years later when I went fishing with Daddy, I had to bait my own hook! We had to sit quietly and patiently for what seemed hours for just one little fish which Daddy would deem to small and we’d throw it back! I don’t think I have fished since that day. My cousin, on the other hand, has gone on to become a greater hunter and fisherman. My dad fished several times a week once he retired.
Despite not enjoying fishing as an adult, I love those memories of being on the banks at the pond at Uncle Faye’s. I smile when I see cane fishing poles especially if a red bobber is attached. It wasn’t the fishing so much but being with family. The laughter and the joy we all shared. Those summers at Williams consisted of no radios, no phones, no devices. All we ever needed was sun, sky, nature, friends and family and a little imagination.
July 2025
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Ben Franklin are the men that come to mind when the phrase “founding fathers” is mentioned. Several others are in the group according to historians. John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and John Hancock are a few of the others. These men were a diverse group of men that came together in the late 1700s and risked everything they had to form a new nation, breaking from England and the king.
One of the prominent points of contention with England was that of religious freedom. Most, if not all, the European countries of the 18th century had a state church which meant, at least in England, that the monarchy was the head of the church and controlled who preached and what they preached. England itself was quite divided over religious practices and there was persecution of those that did not conform to the beliefs of the state church.
This persecution led to many fleeing England’s shores and coming to the “new land” where there was no government to determine what was to be preached or taught. Puritans, Quakers, Calvinists, and Catholics all sought comfort in the colonies.
Despite the different beliefs of our founding fathers, there was one underlying thought…there was a higher power than man. Even those who considered themselves deists understood that reason and knowledge was not of man alone. The majority of the founding fathers feared God, not just a higher power. Many relied on their belief in Jehovah God to see them through the difficult times they faced establishing a new nation. The founding fathers as men of reason and believing in natural laws used the ancient Judeo-Christian precepts as the basis of the new country’s laws. They believed these concepts had worked as the basis of the justice system in Europe for centuries and believed they would work for their new nation. They believed it was man and his faulty reasoning that had corrupted the laws and not the underlying belief system itself.
Romans 13:1-10 was written by the apostle Paul in about 57 AD when Rome and her Caesars were the central governing figures of most of the known world. Paul was inspired to tell his audience during the time of the cruelty of Rome that the government was of God and should be obeyed. Those same Scriptures apply to us today. We are fortunate that our country has been established on principles that God established from the beginning. And even though there are those that deny the power of God or HIS authority, they are still governed by HIS laws, especially HIS law of love.
August 2025
My Boys are all scattered now that they are adults and married. The oldest and his wife are in Lafayette, Indiana. The middle son and his wife are just outside Seattle, Washington. The youngest son and his wife live in Middle Tennessee. The last time we were all together was two years ago at the youngest son’s wedding.
Very soon, however, we will, LORD-willing, all gather for a meal in Indianapolis. The couple from Washington have to come to Indy for business and so I asked the other two couples to join us there for a few hours together. My mother’s heart will be full to have all my kids in one place for even a few, short minutes.
Even though we talk every week, sometimes with video, it is not the same as seeing them in person. They tell you everything is okay and they look fine, but as a mom, I want see, touch and hear in-person, that all is well. I want my arms around them and hold them for just a moment.
My husband and I will be waiting impatiently at the restaurant for their arrival, counting the seconds until we see them. But the moment we catch a glimpse of them we will stand and begin to walk toward them, ready to receive them into our embrace! To welcome them home!
Recently in a sermon I heard the minister referred to the Prodigal Son. In Luke 15:20b, Christ says, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” The wayward son’s father did not wait for the son to come all the way to him. The father RAN to meet his child. As the minister described the scene, what I saw was a man who waited, and waited, and waited. He finally caught a glimpse of a familiar figure trudging toward the house. The father recognized his son and did not hesitate to run and meet him, to welcome the lost son home!
God wants us to come home! HE wants that so badly that HE had HIS son to die for us. God is not sitting on His throne waiting for us to look perfect before coming into His presence. God sees us struggling. HE hears our cries for help. HE hears us when we repent of the attitudes and behaviors that have kept us from HIM. HE hears us declaring our faith in HIM and accepting HIS son as LORD and Saviour. HE watches as we place on Christ in baptism washing away the filth of the world. God, like the prodigal son’s father, recognizes us coming toward HIM and meets us where we are!
We don’t have to be perfect for God to welcome us home. HE will help us to change. We will continue to have trials and struggles, but our Father and Saviour have welcomed us into Their embrace and will help us in those trials and struggles. God will meet us where we are and then walk rest of the way with us…at our side, prodding from behind, showing us the way, or, if needed, carrying us when the journey is difficult.
There’s a great day coming for me as a mother when I have all my babies together, but there even a greater day coming when God opens the doors to HIS home and bids us to come on in!
September 2025
Rule 39
I am a big NCIS fan. Leroy Jethro Gibbs is a favorite of mine. Those who know the show and Gibbs know that he lived by his own set of rules. Rule 39 is a favorite of mine…”There is no such thing as a coincidence.” I agree.
I started medical school in 1977. The first two years were spent on the Indianapolis campus of the Indiana University School of Medicine. The last two years were spent doing various monthly rotations at hospitals in the Indianapolis area. I spent the majority of my time at Methodist Hospital.
I really enjoyed my time as a student at The Methodist. It was where my mother had done her nursing training. I knew my way around. I loved many of the attending physicians. And, Methodist had a great Family Practice Residency program.
When the time came to interview and select a residency program for my career in family medicine, my first choice was The Methodist. I listed St. Vincent second. The next three choices were in Alabama: Gadsden Baptist Memorial, Anniston Regional and then Huntsville Regional. My husband and I prayed for my being “matched” to one of the Indy hospitals.
We really wanted to stay in Indy. We loved the church where we worshipped. We had great friends in and out of the church. We knew our way around Indianapolis. It would be perfect to stay in Indianapolis to do my three years of family medicine residency.
The day came when I received my selection papers. We would be going to Gadsden….
The next three years were the best training I could have ever received! I wanted to do all aspects of family medicine. If I had stayed in Indy, I would have to compete with OB residents to do deliveries. In Gadsden, there was no competing…the family medicine residents were the only ones! Not only did I have 200-300 deliveries under my belt when I left Alabama, I had been trained to do C-Sections. There were no internal medicine residents; the family medicine residents worked in the ICU/CCU doing things that were not taught to family medicine residents at The Methodist. There were no ER residents in Gadsden, only family medicine residents doing ER medicine…one on one with the attending physician.
My husband, meanwhile, worked for the local newspaper. He wrote feature articles as well as doing photography for the paper. We lived close to his folks so we spent a lot of time with his family during those three years in Gadsden.
Some of our closest friends with whom we still stay in touch are from those days spent in Gadsden, Alabama.
Enter Rule 39….
I would have done well at any of the programs I applied to. I would have been an adequate doctor with good training. Wherever we had gone, God would have made it work for good, but….
God knew what kind of doctor I wanted to be. HE knew where I needed to be to receive the kind of training I needed to be that doctor. God knew where my husband could work on his writing skills. God knew we needed to be close to his family. My husband’s work with the church in Gadsden help prepared him for a similar role when we came back to Indiana.
It was no coincidence that we ended up in Gadsden. I truly believe it was God working. Gadsden was third on my list of places to go. Even my husband had preferred to stay in Indy. Yet we spent three years in Gadsden, Alabama. I didn’t really see God’s hand in those three years until I saw how my practice unfolded once we came back to Indiana. I would not have been prepared to work in the ER, assist in surgery, do complicated deliveries or even c-sections had I not been trained at Baptist Memorial in Gadsden, Alabama.
Coincidence? No! God at work!
October 2025
I really can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a doctor. When we “played Barbies” as so many little girls did in the 1960s, my Barbie was a doctor—not a nurse. I told my mother I wanted to be a doctor instead of a nurse because I wanted to give the orders, not take them. (HA!)
I watched several medical show dramas to have a look into the world of medicine. I watched “Medical Center” with Chad Everrett, surgeon extraordinaire. There was another show featuring EMTs and Paramedics, “Emergency” which I rarely missed. Oh, and there was “Marcus Welby, MD.” As I watched these shows and listened as the doctors never missed a beat giving orders of IV infusions and IV medication, I was concerned that I would never be able to do that!
During my first semester in college, I was taking a class on cell biology at David Lispcomb College. DLC was known for an extremely high acceptance rate of their graduates into medical school. During that first semester, a previous graduate visited our class to describe his experiences during his first year of medical school. He brought along with him a few of his textbooks. They scared me to death! They were huge and thick books on pathology and pharmacy. I thought there was no way I could learn everything in those books. I really began to doubt if medical school was the right place for me to be.
I went home between semesters questioning everything I had ever wanted to be. I had already given up the idea of being an astronaut and now between my previous doubts from watching TV shows and hearing the tales from the medical student, I was pretty sure there was no way I could go to medical school—let alone becoming the doctor I wanted to be. I was ready to walk away. Maybe I was meant to be a history teacher….
During the break I visited a dear friend, mentor and teacher. I told him of my dilemma. He asked one simple question: “Do you really want to be a doctor?” When I answered in the affirmative, he just grinned and said, “Then do it.”
Pretty much from that moment on there was no doubt what I wanted and what I was going to do. Except for the day the acceptance letter to medical school came and I wanted to change my mind because it meant my husband-to-be and I would be separated for 4-6 months, there was no turning back. The rest they say is history…4 years of medical school, 3 years of family practice residency and 38 years of medical practice. I persevered!
I look back and I realize that God was in my life through it all. If I had decided to forego medicine and been a history teacher, HE would have been with me through that too, but it was with God’s help that I survived those months without John Douglas at my side. It was God that helped me through those long hours of studying and the numerous tests that it took to get me to that “MD.” And it was definitely God that was with me during the trials of my medical practice, both the medical situations as well as the business of medicine.
Romans 8:28 has always been a favorite verse on mine, but what I understand now that I did not understand early in my life is that if I truly love God and follow HIM, HE will take any situation, any decision and have it work for good. When we seek HIS advice and HIS counsel, HE will see us through…HE will help us persevere.
November 2025
“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV)
“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” – Psalm 107:1 (ESV)
November brings with it cooler weather, barren trees, and of course Thanksgiving. And even though we say we give thanks to God throughout the year, that may not always be the case. Sometimes…sometimes…it is hard to give thanks for our circumstances.
Our Sunday morning Bible class has just finished studying the book of Romans and prior to that we studied the book of James. Both Paul and James comment of the responses we need to give when we face trials and tribulations. James tells us in James 1:2-4, 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (NIV).
The apostle Paul says in Romans 5: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.(NIV)
What I have found over the years is that during the trial, during the storm, it is difficult to give “thanks” and to find joy. How can you thank God for not being able to get pregnant when everyone around is? How can you be thankful when those around you have betrayed you and you are standing alone fighting the “giant?” How can you be thankful for your retirement when so many are complaining about not being able to see a provider when they are sick and struggling? How can you be thankful in “all circumstances?”
How? By looking at the bigger picture! You remain thankful by remembering God is always in control. HE will take whatever we are facing, as long as we walk in the light and continue to love HIM, to take whatever we are facing and allow good to come of it.
Our preacher asked an interesting question several weeks ago….
Joseph told his brothers that what they had meant as harmful God used for good. Do you think that when his brothers threw him in the pit, he thought that? Or when he was thrown into jail because of false accusations, did Joseph say it was God’s will? Or when he was left behind and forgotten by the cup-bearer, did Joseph really think all was going to be okay? Or was it only after it all happened, after all the pain and suffering, all the heartbreak, that Jospeh was able to see God’s plan for Jacob, the brothers, and himself?
The same is true for us. We can remain thankful during all circumstances because we know God’s plan for us. (Jeremiah 29:11) We know, because of what happened with Joseph, because of the fulfillment of prophecies in Christ, because of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, we know that God’s word to us is trustworthy and HE will always watch over us and care for us. We are thankful in all circumstances because we know suffering produces hope, and trials help our faith mature!
I didn’t get pregnant when I wanted to, but I was blessed with three sons. I fought with cooperate medicine, walking away when I felt I could do no more. Those who were doing the pushing have lost their jobs and there does seem to be some change coming. I am so glad I retired when I did even though I can’t help others the way I used to, but I can give them guidance in their journey through their medical illnesses.
God answered all my prayers of the past…maybe not when or how I thought HE would. If HE answered in the past, I am assured HE will continue to answer and for that I can give HIM my thanks in all circumstances.
December 2025
Recently one of my daughters-in-law had one of her painting in a show in Indianapolis. Another artist, Emi Shigeno, also had at the same show a very interesting painting of a stable with light showing through the recesses of the area where animals lived. I asked her about the painting, and she said that she painted it to remember the birth of Christ which took place in a dark, dingy, smelly stable where animals lived, and yet Christ brought light. I told her that Mary Balogh, one of my favorite romance writers, had said something similar in one of her Christmas books. In the Christmas Bride, Ms. Balogh wrote, “The stable at Bethlehem must have been drafty and uncomfortable and smelly and downright humiliating. How dare we make beatific images of it! It was nasty. That was the whole point. It was meant to be nasty just as the other end of that baby’s life was. This is what I am prepared to do for you, that stable was meant to tell us. But instead of accepting reality and coping with it, we soften and sentimentalize everything.” So when I was asked to write about Mary, the mother of Jesus, and how she felt that night in Bethlehem, these ideas, as well as my experiences as a doctor delivering babies, came flooding to mind.
Mary was visited by Gabriel, an angel sent from God, who told this young virgin she was to be the mother of the expected Messiah. If tradition is to be believed, Mary was probably between 15 and 16 years of age. According to the Gospel of Luke, she was living in Nazareth at the time of the angel’s visit, and she was betrothed to Joseph, a man who, again according to tradition, was much older than the young virgin. Caesar Tiberius had called for a census to be taken, and everyone had to return to their home of origin; so Joseph led Mary to Bethlehem. Mary was a first-time mother riding on a donkey over 90 miles at 9 months pregnant!On arrival to the small town outside of Jerusalem, the couple soon learned that there was “no room in the inn,’ and Mary was in labor and soon delivered a son and lay him in a manger.
Here’s where my imagination as a physician kicks in…. I took care of numerous teenage mothers during their pregnancies and deliveries. They almost always had their mother or another important woman to them to help them through one of scariest times of their lives…labor and delivery. There was also a team of nurses and a doctor. If the dad was involved, even if he went to the labor-prep classes, he usually was not much help through the actual delivery except for the soon-to-be mom squeezing his hand and not yelling back at her as she yelled at him through the labor pain and the actual delivery.
After the actual delivery, the baby was watched closely while mother held it closely or it was taken by the nurses to clean it up, evaluate the “fresh human” giving it the appropriate Apgar score and then letting dad carry the baby back to mom who was exhausted after her labor and wanted to rest.
But, looking at Scriptures, Mary had no one to help her through her labor or delivery except Joseph! Here was a teenage mother in a dirty, smelly stable surrounded by cows, sheep, and other critters enduring labor pains. She had no one to help her that we know of, no one to tell her “you’re doing great,” “it won’t be much longer,”or “one more push and the babe will be here.” How did this couple manage to deliver the Christ Child by themselves? How did this young, inexperienced mother know how to feed her baby? And how was she even able to think about resting with the shepherds visiting and the angels singing? (Not to mention the little drummer boy drumming!)
The point is this…In the Gospel of Luke, Mary told Gabriel, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:38a) Mary made it through one of the most difficult things any woman could go through because she had been told by God through the angel not to be afraid. Mary trusted her God through it all: the betrothal, the pregnancy, the journey to Bethlehem, and through the labor and delivery. She TRUSTED God!
It was scary! It was painful! It was hard! Although we don’t see anyone with her in the stable besides Joseph, God is there with Mary to see the delivery of His Only Begotten Son.
We should trust like Mary!
God-Styled Life with Maggie P 