"White Coat Ceremony"- Reflections of GOD's Leading and Faithfulness

"I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for a man to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23

After the "White Coat Ceremony" with my son, his fiance, and my mother in law

    Dear Praying Friends and Family,
      Thank you so much for your continued prayers for Dana and her family.  Dana is planning to fly to Alabama tomorrow (today)  and her hearts desire is to be able to spend time with Zach.  Please pray the LORD will make the way for her to do this.  If anyone would like to help out the Grammer Family with their legal expenses to get Zach back  in their custody you can do that here.  Her sis posted today, even if it's $5.00 any amount will be greatly appreciated.  You can contribute here:https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/1M0ac

    Dana had this posted early this morning on her FB page and asked us to please continue praying:

                                                       


      I mentioned last week about the continued rise of CHRISTian persecution in our country and saw this article from Fox news this week confirming those reports.

Christians victims of rising hostilities:
--  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/24/christians-victims-rising-hostility-from-govt-and-secular-groups-report-says/?test=latestnews  We are living in evil days, and we need to be praying for one another,  encouraging one another in GOD's WORD  and making the most of every opportunity the LORD gives us to share CHRIST with those around us.  "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity."Col. 4:5

     I have been wanting to write you for awhile, and i guess it hasn't been that long since i sent out an email last week and wrote about Dana and her family mostly.  As i mentioned, we had the wonderful blessing of attending my son's "White Coat Ceremony" at UAB last Sunday.   For those of you like me who never heard of a "White Coat Ceremony," it's a time the beginning medical students get the "white coats," at the beginning of their medical school journey, and a time of exhortation and encouragement by the professors....sort of a "commissioning" time i guess.

Program for the White Coat Ceremony

    I didn't know what to expect, but  after church last Sunday my husband and i made the hour and a half journey down to Birmingham, with my mother in law.  I quickly made Johnny a sandwich, while i grabbed some casserole we had left over, and were on our way by 11:30 a.m.  I don't know what happened because it's not like us to be early anywhere, but we got there an hour before it started.  I'm glad cause it was packed....On the way down, our son's fiance called and told us she would be meeting us down there.  At the last minute she had been able to take off work and she drove down earlier that morning.
     When we got there, Johnny let us off in front of the big auditorium and folks were waiting in line in the lobby to get inside. Took just a few minutes to get in touch with Amanda, my son's fiance, but the LORD helped us find her quickly.  Most of the large group of family and friends was slowly making their way through one doorway, while a few were trickling off to the side downstairs.  Somehow, GOD directed our steps to go to the side and go downstairs, even though we didn't know where we were going.  We entered the floor the students would be sitting on, and got seats right behind where they were sitting. Thank you, LORD for leading us to get there early, and leading us to the downstairs where we had great seats!  We were there in plenty of time and while we waited we each took seperate turns to go the bathroom.  Far be it from us to go at the same time, we had rather crawl over one another:).
    The 45 minutes passed quickly and before long, a large group of faculty in their white coats came and sat on stage.  It made me nervous as i thought about the world my son was about to enter...a world that has helped me and hurt me at times in my own health struggles. 

Faculty sitting on stage, students in front of us

  Shortly afer the faculty entered, the students marched in one by one with their white coats draped over their arms.  There were 172 or 176 or them in all....my son later said their class wasn't politically correct because there where a lot of white males in the class.  There were 70 something girls in the class too.  I thought about my own dear doctor in Texas when she entered med school at Emory back in the 60's there were only four girls in the whole med school!  Wow...things sure have changed! 

My son with his "white coat" draped over his arm.

      My son marched by us, and along with Nick Rockwell, a fine young man who grew up in our church at First Baptist, and all the rest of the students, and the ceremony began as soon as everyone was seated.  A grandfatherly looking man in a white coat got up and spoke, and his down to earth demeanor set me more at ease. The first thing he did was to encourage the students to turn around and look around them and thank the ones who were responsible for getting them there.  That sure did make me happy that they would remind these young people that they didn't get where they were on their own....they had help and a LOT of it. I appreciated that reminder so very much and that sure set me more at ease.  Next,  they honored three doctors in memory of a missionary doctor who was killed in Yemen a few years ago.  Honoring the missionary doctor who was killed, along with the other three doctors who had lived  exemplarly lives of serving others, really set the tone for the service, that of serving, having compassion, and not thinking you are above anyone else.  One of the wives of the doctors who were honored got up and told the students, "Whatever you do, give glory to GOD."

    The keynote speaker was a doctor who got up and right away he admitted that he had forgotten that he was supposed to speak at this ceremony.  He was scheduled to be out of the country, but when he was reminded of his commitment to speak at the "White Coat Ceremony" he said he didn't want to miss it.  He told about when he began medical school and how his mom was skeptical of different diseases, and it reminded me of me.  He said she later was happy because she was thinking about free medical care for her, the family, friends and he said eventually everyone in Gadsden!
    He went on to encourage the students to live a life of serving others, being compassionate, and challenged them to take off their "white coats," so they could really bring healing to others.  He said you are going to be helping people just like your Mom and Dad, just like others in your family, and in order to bring true healing you've got to treat them with respect and care.  I really appreciate his exhortation to these  beginning medical students,  especially to my son, to be humble, and truly care for your patients.

"The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer is from the LORD.All the ways of a man are clean in his sight, But the LORD weighs the motives.  Commit your works to the LORD, and your plans will be established. The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.  Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished." Proverbs 16:1-5

    GOD's name wasn't mentioned constantly, but it surely was mentioned several times, and  the exhortation to these students to live a life of service and compassion was clearly the theme of the "White Coat Ceremony."  To say i felt a little more at ease about the journey my son is embarking on would be accurate.  After the guest speaker finished talking,  the students were called by their names up on stage and one by one the faculty put the students "White Coat's" on them and then they walked across the stage and shook hands with the Grandfather looking faculty member and got their pictures made with him.  After everyone had received their "White Coats," the students marched out one by one  and it didn't take us long to find our son in the lobby.  

Faculty putting the "white coats" on the students one by one

    After it was over, we went took some pictures, and then went to our son's apartment not too far from campus.  He was proud to show us how neat his apartment was...I was proud too:).  It will be his and his fiancee's first home when they get married in Dec. After we hung out at his apartment for a little while, JM took us to a wonderful restaurant not too far from campus . It used to  be a radiator place many years ago, but it's been a restaurant for over 20 years now and the food was yummy! We took our time and enjoyed visiting and hearing about our son's first couple of weeks of med school.  After we finished eating, we took our son and his fiancee back to his apartment, and we headed on back to Athens.  Though i wasn't feeling the best in the world, it was a really good day and i was very thankful for the "White Coat Ceremony" and the words they challenged our children with to serve, be compassionate, and take off their "white coats,"  to bring about true healing.

   Our son's journey to med school began before he was even born, when GOD thought of him and knew the plans and purposes HE had for him before he was even born.  Our son never was one who like to play outside very much...he much rather preferred being inside reading a book or playing with "Geosafari" or the countless little computer things we got him, before we got him a real computer.  He always loved for me to read to him, and used to bring me a stack of books to read after he got up from his nap.  I used to try and try and try to make him go and just play like i did when i was growing up....he really didnt catch on to that too much, although he did like organized soccer, and he is playing on an intramural soccer team now.   He also played baseball, and basketball in the rec leagues growing up....he just didn't like to play outside much if it wasn't organized!  When he got older and we went fishing he would bring a book along to read....he would sprawl out in a lawn chair reading a book while we fished!  My son was a dream homeschool student as far as academics....while other Mom's pulled their hair out with their boys doing their schoolwork, i pulled mine out wanting him to play outside!  

    I didn't really see GOD was preparing him to go to med school although in junior high he read a book about Ben Carson being a brain surgeon and he seemed to really like Ben Carson.  When he was in high school he started thinking about med school some, but still didn't want to make a commitment to that many years of school. GOD kept gently leading and planting the seeds, and i will never forget my doctor in Texas sending John Mac an email telling about how GOD led her to medical school, and how HE provided all her needs in spite of tremendous challenges.  It was a fascinating email to me, and i still have it.   I remember reading it to the kids the day it came as we ate lunch together.  That was the first time i began to really believe that maybe the LORD was calling my son to go to med school, and HE would provide the way if that  was what HE was leading him to do.  GOD used my doctor to plant seeds of faith in our lives that this was a possible journey of the impossible.  Our son wasn't sure at this point, and didn't want to commit and his Daddy encouraged him to pursue an engineering degree if he wasn't sure. GOD brought other godly counsel into our lives, during those years.  One night Mr. George Hardy, a godly man from church who worked for NASA and took the fallout for when the  space shuttle blew up several years ago, came over to eat with supper with us and gave our son his counsel.  He thought the electrical engineering would be a good degree to pursue and if GOD called him later to be a doctor, his training would go well with that degree.  He had a friend who was a doctor who had an electrical engineering degree.  GOD used Mr. Hardy as another source of encouragement along the journey to encourage our son.
    It seemed  for awhile that our son was going to be content to an engineer and then he got a job working around engineers and GOD used that to gently persuade him that he didn't want to do that the rest of his life.  That served as a catalyst to get him to thinking seriously about pursuing medical school.  I remember one day i was at home with our son and he said "Mom what would you think about me going to medical school?"  I'll be honest i was thrilled.  He said "Don't tell Daddy..." and i thought what?  You just told me you want to go to med school and i can't tell Daddy?  He wanted to tell him himself naturally, and Johnny's response wasn't thrilled....he was thinking how much is this going to cost?  Immediately i reminded him about my beloved doctor's email, and how GOD had provided for her, and somehow he would our son.
    At first our son had his sights set on Johns Hopkins, or somewhere up north, and then GOD brought the desire of our son's heart into the picture, his fiancee, and he was quiet content to go to school somewhere closer to home...we were happy about that.  She has one more year of school before she finished her degree, and she will be able to complete some of her training at UAB hospital after they get married.  GOD is making the way, making the path clearer one step at a time.

   I've been thinking a lot this week, and the past few weeks about GOD leading our steps, and HIM being sovereign in our lives and as i reflect back over our son's journey to med school.  I see the hand of GOD leading in his life when i couldn't see the big picture.  I've been reading a book this week, called The Red Sea Rules, by Robert J. Morgan.  It is such a great book on the Sovereignty of GOD in our lives and how HE is the one who leads us in the good times and the difficult times, just as he led the children of Israel to the Red Sea when the Egyptians were pursuing them.  They were led to an impossible situation so their GOD might show HIS power and deliver them in an amazing way....the first "Rule of the Red Sea" is that GOD means for you to be where you are."
    That is such a comfort to me, whether it's your son being led into a profession that you are at times skeptical of some of their practices, or whether you continue to wrestle with your body as it rebels against some of the very things it needs to get better....GOD means for me to be where i am, where my husband is in his work (which i still wrestle with that at times) where my son is in school, and my daughter and where she is.  Therein lieth peace, to know that just as GOD is leading me to accomplish HIS plans and purposes, HE is leading the others member of my family, and my loved ones.  I can "release" them into HIS hands when my head and my heart doubt the plans HE has for us.

     Sometimes those plans are very difficult on the ones that we love the most.  My husband's Mom told us on the way home from the "White Coat Ceremony" that the day we left for Texas for my husband to attend seminary was the worst day for her.  She  hated for us to move away....and as far as she knew it for the rest of her life.  But GOD had another plan and instead of going to the foreign mission field as we had planned, the LORD brought us back to Athens 5 and a half years later and HE has kept us here. Not our plans, but GOD's.

    Today in my "Amazing Grace,"  Hymn's Devotion book was the hymn "All the Way My Savior Leads Me, by the blind hymn writer, Fanny Crosby.   Fanny was blinded by a medical "error" at six weeks of age, but GOD was working out HIS sovereign plan in her life.  Our "accidents," are HIS infinite plans to work out our good and HIS glory through our lives. Fanny Crosby who wrote thousands of hymns after the 40, would probably have not have the "spiritual eyes," she did to "see" that her SAVIOR indeed led her all the way, as HE does all of HIS children .  Today I've included the hymn sang by Chris Tomlin who added his special touch....
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nvXoZhDES0 .  I love this version and i love the pictures of JESUS....just picture HIM with you right where you are because HE is and HE loves us so much, that HE gave HIS life for us on the Cross of Calvary.  If you have never surrendered you life to your SAVIOR WHO leads and guides you always in the best way, not just sometimes, i encourage you to say yes to HIM today, confess your sins, and ask HIM to be the LORD of your life.  Even in salvation, JESUS leads us...apart from the FATHER drawing us to HIMself we could not come to know CHRIST JESUS.  "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day."John 6:44    

     I read this quote today in the Red Sea rules that reminds us how GOD unfolds HIS providence in our  lives:     

 
‎"In the unfolding of HIS providence, burdens become blessings, tears lead to triumph, and the redemptive grace of GOD overcomes the undercurrents of life in the experiences of HIS children. For them, all things work together for good to those who love the LORD and are called according to HIS purposes...

Charles Spurgeon once quipped, "We believe in the providence of GOD, but we do not believe half enough in it." Robert J. Morgan, The Red Sea Rules

    Do you believe in the providence of GOD?  I say i do, yet, i wrestle with some things, and i doubt.  Peace comes as i trust in the LORD with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding, in all my ways, acknowledge HIM and HE will direct my paths." Proverbs 3:5-6.  It also comes as i trust HIM to direct my children's paths, and my loved ones paths, and the authorities over me.  I sure don't always do this i confess, but i press on toward the mark, of walking in close intimate fellowship with my SAVIOR and trusting HIS providence in all circumstances. 

Friend shared this on FB yesterday

                                     

     It sure is peaceful out here tonight, with the crickets gently chirping, Henry, our cat, and Troy our Maltipoo have been playing around my feet, and are now laying quietly on the deck.  It's peaceful here but down on the Gulf coast, there is a hurricane about to hit...that's the way it is in our lives, sometimes it's peaceful, and sometimes we find our selves led right smack in the middle of a hurricane....GOD is sovereign over the hurricanes of our lives, just as HE is the times of rest. 

     "Consider the work of GOD; for who can make straight what HE has made crooked?  In the day of prosperity be joyful, But in the day of adversity consider; Surely GOD has appointed the one as well as the other..." 7:13-14


  LORD, help us to trust you in the midst of the hurricanes in our lives, trusting that YOU led us there, just as you led the children of Israel to the RED Sea.  There was no way through, except for YOU to make a way.  We praise YOU that YOU are soverein over our circumstances, and YOU indeed make a way when there seems to be no way....like for a little guy that was homeschooled by a sick mama to be accepted into med school, a mama whose brain was to rattled to teach him math beyond the sixth grade. You made a way, and that little man grew up and majored in electrical engineering, and now he's beginning med school.  You do these things so you will get the glory, "Not unto us oh LORD, not unto us, but to you be all glory and honor and power."Psalm 115:1

     

     Please remember my son in your prayers,  along with Dana and her son, and family.  Please remember all those in the path of the hurricane.  Hannah Beth's classes at the University of Mobile are out until Thursday and she is in Atlanta with her boyfriend whose Mom is in the hospital.  Please pray for her. The timing was perfect so her son could come home and be with her. GOD's providence in the midst of the hurricane....

     Thank you for spending this time with me, and let me share with you once again, GOD's goodness and mercies in the life of our family.  I  sure was encouraged reflecting on GOD's tender mercies in our family and HIS great faithfulness to lead and guide us.  It helps me to trust HIM for the todays and the tomorrows in my life and my children's lives. 

                                                              With all HIS love,

                                                                    mitzi

"Lead me, LORD to the ROCK that is higher than I.  Let me hear YOUR WORD, give me grace to obey, to build steadily, stone upon stone, day by day, to do what YOU say.  Establish my heart where floods have no power to overwhelm, for CHRIST's sake. Amen." Elisabeth Elliot, www.elisabethelliot.org

"Precious LORD, take my hand, lead me on, help me stand-I am tired, I am weak, I am worn; thro' the storm, thro' the night, lead me on to the light-Take my hand, precious LORD, lead me home.
   When my way grows, drear, Precious LORD, linger near-when my life is almost gone.  Hear my cry, hear my call, hold my hand lest I fall-Take my hand, precious LORD, lead me home." Thomas A. Dorsey, 1899-1965