On the Side: September 2024

"Roo" Photo by Carol Shrader

nd so it happened that one week before move-in day for my baby, I saw a dog that seemed to need me. I looked at my husband and said I think I will fill out this application. My dog-loving hubby told me to go right ahead.

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On the Side: August 2024

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I had delayed answering for too long, because she was rephrasing the question yet again. “Where do you go when you want to find the truth?”

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On the Side: July 2024

My physician hubby and I just celebrated 33 years married. 33 years. 25 of those I have been married to a physician. (The first eight he was an aerospace engineer but don’t get me started on the bliss of having a NASA engineer as a husband and the flex schedule that meant he had a three-day weekend twice a month!)

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On the Side: June 2024

“…let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross…”
Hebrews 12:1-2

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On the Side: May 2024

The best title of all to have, I think, is the title of “Redeemed.” No matter what other titles we may have, no matter how noble or glorious they are, compared to Redeemed, they all seem to shrink in importance.

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On the Side: March 2024

I hear Wade talk about his interviews for residency sometimes. I hear him describe flying to a centralized location in the Southeast and renting a car. I hear him describe traveling from program to program to hit as many schools with one flight as possible.

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On the Side: February 2024

We all need advice, and from time to time we may even look for it. The question is, where should we seek it? The Internet? The Bible? Our pastor? A friend? A family member? Where can a Christian find godly advice?

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On the Side: January 2024

I finished school many years ago. My children are almost grown. My youngest is a senior in high school. There are no grandchildren on my horizon to date. Yet, I still put the new crayons in my shopping buggy at least once a year. There is just something wondrous about a brand-new box.

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3 Big Questions to Ask About Your Will

A completed will or trust provides a wonderful opportunity to honor God and provide for your family. Through it, you can also give in a meaningful way to CMDA and the other causes close to your heart.

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On the Side: December 2023

We drove to Mississippi from Chicago while in medical school. We had three under two and knew we probably wouldn’t make it the entire way in one day but weren’t exactly sure how far we would make it. And so, we decided to drive until we had to stop. It was a great decision right up until the triplets were past exhausted and there was not one hotel room to be found. Not one.

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On the Side: November 2023

As I am writing this article, it has been just a few days since hostilities erupted in the Middle East. Every morning I have to get up and see what they are doing over there. It is unquestionable that any information I have today will be obsolete by the time you read this. I don’t know what else to say except, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you’” (Psalm 122:6, NASB).

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On the Side: October 2023

God knows everything He is planning to bring about in our future. He is the One who makes a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. We may look around us and see nothing of that promise, but He encourages us to look anyway and to see with the eyes of faith.

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The Hat Trick of Giving Stock

What a wonderful miracle marriage is! God brings two different people – with unique personalities, experiences and opinions – and binds them together in a beautiful, holy union. 

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On the Side: September 2023

I met my best friends from high school this summer in North Carolina. It was our third annual trip together—we have been to a couple of beaches, but this year we chose the mountains.

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On the Side: August 2023

God knows everything He is planning to bring about in our future. He is the One who makes a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. We may look around us and see nothing of that promise, but He encourages us to look anyway and to see with the eyes of faith.

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On the Side: July 2023

Several years ago, there was a house down the street from us that had the most amazing landscaping! Ok, I’ll admit it, I experienced a little “flower envy” every time I walked by with the dogs. I may have even sneaked a pic or two to save for when spring came around again so I could plant similar flowers. 

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On the Side: June 2023

When I sit among the women of our local Side By Side chapter, I sit among power. Wives of physicians, some physicians themselves, some experts in other fields, some nursing stay-at-home moms. A group diverse in age and background and current employment, but always powerful.

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In Defense of Marriage

I know God does not plan such a union of love for everyone. He has different and important plans for others with the freedom of singleness (1 Corinthians 7:7-8).

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On the Side: May 2023

Moving has the effect of making you take stock of what you’re carrying with you. It is important to know what baggage to keep and what to get rid of.

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On the Side: April 2023

Some days when the deadline for writing my On the Side devotional is looming—or loomed last week and is now bearing down on me like a bullet train—and the words are stuck in my head, I scroll through old issues to see what topics we have covered as a team.

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On the Side: March 2023

It has been said that all the world is a stage, and the people are mere players. If that is true, then sometimes I feel like a supporting character in my own life. My husband’s career has been center-stage for so long, I can’t remember a time when our life didn’t somehow revolve around it. It determined where we lived, and how long. It determined when dinner was, and when we could go on vacation. It was the reason we moved away from home, and the reason we moved again, and again, and again. And I have been the one making sure all the endless “little things” got done along the way. I am pushing the plot of our lives along—but standing outside the spotlight.

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On the Side: February 2023

On the Side: February 2023

Kicking and screaming…most of the time. Protesting in the loudest and most ridiculous ways imaginable. Much like a disobedient child, who is being drug from a store by a parent; misbehaving just because they didn’t get what they wanted. That’s me. Why? How do you follow Jesus?

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Exclusion

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Revelation 3:20, NIV).

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On the Side: December 2022

Waiting for the Gift

The Christmas season is upon us! I love the smells, the lights and the traditions. One tradition we have in our family is to not put any Christmas gifts under the tree until after the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve. It is a tradition born out of practicality: we had curious toddlers in our house for more than 10 years. But even now, when our youngest is 11, we still keep all the gifts safely tucked away until late Christmas Eve. It is so much fun to see the surprise on their sleepy faces Christmas morning!

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On the Side: October 2022

Medical life takes grit. We wrap our minds around MCAT scores, acceptance letters, residency placements and job contracts, knowing it’s not easy. There’s risk in leaving a paying job and moving across the country. And it’s scary. Will you land on your feet? Will you live on this budget? Will you make friends? Regardless, we have hope. We see the endpoint, or the little milestones on the way—the white coat ceremony, the match and the job signing. 

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4 Reasons to Give from Your IRA

If you are among the majority of Americans without a will or trust, chances are good that at least one of two “costs” have gotten in the way: time and money.

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What Makes a Person Generous?

If you are among the majority of Americans without a will or trust, chances are good that at least one of two “costs” have gotten in the way: time and money.

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Is Cash Really King?

If you are among the majority of Americans without a will or trust, chances are good that at least one of two “costs” have gotten in the way: time and money.

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On the Side: September 2022

Behind the smile I was shouting, “Oh goodness mercy of course!” I have been the new girl showing up at the team meeting, the book club, the Bible study far, far more often than I have been the one standing with friends. It can be excruciatingly hard. It can also be invigorating.

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It’s Adenocarcinoma

“In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you will extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16, NIV).

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On the Side: August 2022

Medical healthcare photo created by freepik - www.freepik.com

I don’t drag out my MD for just any occasion. Typically, I keep it tucked away. But today I thought I would speak (indirectly) to residents, especially first-year residents or interns, so it seemed appropriate. Perhaps you ladies, who are reading this article, will pass along my remarks to the young physicians in your lives.

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On the Side: July 2022

We were doing a residency rotation in Florida when the triplets were four. One dreary overcast Saturday we were enjoying family time even though Wade was on call. We didn’t understand that in Florida rain can turn to sun in less than a minute. That day it did just that. And three four-year-olds began to wail. I couldn’t understand why the sun was making them cry. As I attempted to console them, I was asking why they were sobbing: “Daddy will have to go to work now.”

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Advocacy News for You

CMDA’s Advocacy Department is focused on serving as your voice to the government, media and public on bioethical and public policy issues. Much of the grassroots advocacy efforts we take on both federal and state levels depend on your individual involvement.

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On the Side: June 2022

One day, a mole decided life underground wasn’t his thing. Ready for something new, he found a folded lawn chair in a driveway and thought, yes, this was his best next step. So he moved in.

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On the Side: May 2022

I’m in my early 60s. This means I have about 50 years of clear memories of news events, politics, fads and fashions, stemming from the early 70s. I even remember when JFK died, although I was just a little girl; the reactions of the adults around me were so remarkable that I still remember exactly where I was. In all of that time I will tell you what I have learned: God is the only One we can trust to tell us the truth and the only One who can give us peace. 

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Five Ways to Maximize Your Giving

Savvy giving to stretch your dollar AND reduce your taxes
Whether shopping, investing or giving, you’re always trying to get the most out of your money. To you, this just makes sense!

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On the Side: April 2022

The dog groomer took some sort of hiatus. And while I don’t begrudge her time off, away or whatever she needed, we have three dogs in this house. Two fairly large, all fairly fluffy dogs. And furthermore, finding a good groomer in our area is like finding gold at the end of the rainbow. It eludes most and did us for a long time. Finding a replacement was impossible.

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On the Side: March 2022

My middle daughter has a problem with trust. She often asks me, “Mom, are you going to take me to dance today?” or “Mom, are you going to pick me up from school?” She frets over small things like have I signed a permission slip yet, or have I made that orthodontist appointment yet. It is frustrating as a parent to feel like my precious girl doesn’t know that I am taking care of her, that I am here for her.

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On the Side: February 2022

As I write this, I am on Day 8 of a self-imposed quarantine for COVID-19. Dr. H and I managed to come down with it at almost the same time; so have several of our family members. No one seems to know just who gave it to whom, but at this point it doesn’t much matter. All of our happily vaccinated and boostered selves are doing better now, by God’s grace, and we are very thankful about it.

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On the Side: January 2022

I knew I’d broken it before I hit the ground. I heard it snap. Breathing hard on the concrete, between cries for help, my mind moaned, “not again!”.  
 
Yes. Again. 
 
9 years ago I broke the same ankle, my right one. It was early Christmas morning and I was sleepily walking down the stairs to get baby Tylenol for my teething son. One wrong step and down I went. This time it was December 23rd. I think next year my family may cocoon me in bubble wrap and prop me up in the corner until New Year’s. 

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Avoiding the Cliffhanger: How Your Will Reveals What Matters Most

Cliffhangers might be an amusing way to end a novel or sitcom, but it’s hardly the way to conclude your own life’s story.

Yet, this is exactly what will happen if you don’t complete or communicate your estate plans. Your loved ones will face the ultimate “cliffhanger.”

Without completing and sharing your will or trust, your family will be burdened with uncertainty about how you wanted your belongings to be distributed. They won’t have any clarity about the provisions you wanted to make for your family or for the causes close to your heart.

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How Generous Christians Save Taxes

Savvy Giving Options You Should Know

Care to know a secret?

Generous Christians just like you are giving to CMDA in savvy ways that have tremendous kingdom impact AND reduce their taxes!

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The Cure for Your Real Estate Headaches

Reduce Taxes and Burdens by Giving Property. Sometimes the cost and hassle of owning real estate outweighs the benefits your property once offered.
Can you relate to any of these ownership headaches?

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The One Thing that Keeps Us from Gloating

For many, the iconic, self-made millionaire is the epitome of American life. The familiar, if not trite, mantra goes something like this: “Work harder than everyone else now and collect your millions later.”

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Be Contagious | Leading Through the Crisis

He does not recall where he may have been exposed. While he works in a medical setting, every precaution was taken from the time (and perhaps a little before) it became a common mandate. Could it have been in the community?

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Richard A. Swenson, MD

Richard A. Swenson, MD, received his B.S. in physics (Phi Beta Kappa) from Denison University (1970) and his M.D. from the University of Illinois School of Medicine (1974). Following five years of private practice, in 1982 Dr. Swenson accepted a teaching position as Associate Clinical Professor within the University of Wisconsin Medical School system where he taught for fifteen years. He currently is a full-time futurist, physician-researcher, author, and educator. As a physician, his focus is “cultural medicine,” researching the intersection of health and culture. As a futurist, his emphasis is fourfold: the future of the world system, western culture, faith, and healthcare.

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Warren Kinghorn, MD, ThD

Warren Kinghorn, MD, ThD, received his MD from Harvard Medical School and his ThD from Duke University Divinity School. He is assistant professor of psychiatry and pastoral and moral theology at Duke University Medical Center and Duke Divinity School. He teaches and mentors divinity students, medical and other health professions students and psychiatry residents at Duke.

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William P. Cheshire, Jr., MD

William P. Cheshire, Jr., MD, is professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic and an expert on disorders of the autonomic nervous system. At Mayo Clinic in Florida he chairs the Ethics Committee and leads the Program in Professionalism & Values. The neurology department chose him as teacher of the year in 2015. At CMDA Dr. Cheshire chairs the Ethics Committee.

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Dónal P. O’Mathúna, PhD

Dónal P. O’Mathúna is Senior Lecturer in Ethics, Decision-Making & Evidence in the School of Nursing & Human Sciences at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland, and Chair of the Academy of Fellows at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity in Chicago. He is a member of CMA and the Paul Tournier Institute speaker’s bureau. He is the Chairperson of the DCU Research Ethics Committee and a member of the St James’s Hospital Ethics Committee in Dublin.

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Dale A. Matthews, MD, FACP

Dr. Matthews practices general internal medicine in McLean, Virginia and is a staff physician in the Primary Care Division of the Virginia Hospital Center Physician Group (Arlington, VA). He conducts research and lectures nationally and internationally on the doctor-patient relationship and the psychological and spiritual dimensions of medicine, including the role of faith, religion, and prayer in clinical care and healing. He has served on the general internal medicine faculty at three medical schools: Yale University, University of Connecticut and Georgetown University. He also teaches continuing medical education courses for the Continuing Medical Education, Inc. University at Sea program. He is the author of The Faith Factor: Proof of the Healing Power of Prayer (Viking, 1998).

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Reginald Finger, MD, MPH

Reginald Finger, MD, MPH received the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1981 and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology in 1983 from the University of Washington in Seattle. For much of his career, Dr. Finger has worked in disease prevention and health promotion in state and local health departments. Dr. Finger has been a CMDA member since 2003.

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Kenneth M. Dudley, MD

Kenneth Earl Dudley, MD teaches Ethics and Epidemiology at Michigan State University (MSU) College of Human Medicine as an associate professor. His PowerPoint presentations have been outreach events for medical and college students, or tailored to CMDA and church audiences. He has a BA in Bible-Theology from Moody Bible Institute, a BS in Biology and an MD from MSU. He has practiced as a board certified Family Physician since 1983.

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Jeffrey Barrows, DO, MA (Ethics)

Dr. Jeffrey Barrows is an Obstetrician/Gynecologist who in 1999 joined the staff of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations to help administrate a medical education mission outreach called Medical Education International (MEI). While working with the Christian Medical Association, he was asked by the U.S. State Department in 2004 to research the health consequences of Human Trafficking. From 2005-2008, he compiled and submitted an annual report to the Director of the State Department’s -Office to Monitor & Combat Trafficking of Persons. This research resulted in the article Human Trafficking and the Healthcare Professional published in the May 2008 Southern Medical Journal.

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Autumn Dawn Galbreath, MD, MBA

Autumn Dawn Eudaly Galbreath, MD, MBA is an internist in San Antonio, Texas, where she lives with her husband, David, and their three children. Though they met in medical school, David now owns a restaurant in the San Antonio area. Between the two of them, they have experienced multiple career transitions, and weathered the resultant stresses on their marriage and family.

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Sam Molind, DMD

Team Leader, Global Health Outreach
Dr. Sam Molind left his Montpelier, Vermont practice in 1998 to begin Global Health Outreach (GHO) and directed it for 12 years. Prior to his work with GHO, Dr. Molind served as Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Vermont Medical School and had a private oral and maxillofacial surgery practice in Montpelier.

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Jonathan Imbody

Jonathan previously served as CMDA’s Federal Policy Analyst and as CMDA’s liaison with the federal government in Washington, D.C. A veteran writer of more than 30 years, Jonathan authored Faith Steps, which encourages and equips Christians to engage in public policy issues. He has published more than 100 commentaries in The Washington Post, USA Today, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times and many other national publications. Jonathan’s writing focuses on public policy issues including freedom of faith, conscience and speech; human trafficking; abortion; assisted suicide; stem cell research; the role of faith in health; international health; healthcare policy; sexual risk avoidance and HIV/AIDS. Jonathan received his bachelor’s degree in journalism and speech communications from the Pennsylvania State University, a master’s degree from Penn State in counseling and education and a certificate in biblical and theological studies from the Alliance Theological Seminary in New York. Jonathan’s wife Amy is an author and leads the Redemptive Education movement. They have four children and four grandchildren.

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Walt Heyer

Walt Heyer was a husband, father and corporate executive who underwent gender reassignment surgery at the age of 42, going from man to woman.

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Omari Hodge, MD

Omari Hodge is originally from Brooklyn, New York but moved to Stone Mountain, Georgia in his teens. He attended college at the University of West Georgia where he met his wife Kiera Hodge. Through his wife’s hard work and support he was able to attend Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. By the time medical school was finished there were a total of four kids in the Hodge family. He spent three years in Greenwood, South Carolina for residency and has since relocated to Marietta, Georgia. He and his wife have served on a number of trips with CMDA and have recently decided that God was calling them to lead an annual trip in Ethiopia.

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Ryan T. Anderson, PhD

Ryan T. Anderson, PhD, is the William E. Simon senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, and he is the founder and editor of Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute of Princeton, New Jersey. He is the author of When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Momentand Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom, and he is the co-author of What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense and Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination.

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André Van Mol, MD

André Van Mol, MD is a board-certified family physician in private practice. He serves on the boards of Bethel Church of Redding and Moral Revolution (moralrevolution.com), and is the co-chair of the American College of Pediatrician’s Committee on Adolescent Sexuality.

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Allan Josephson, MD

Allan Josephson, MD, is Professor and Chief, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Pediatrics with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

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