Author: Mollie T. Cox

Relationships

Beware: It May Not Be a Fact

May 24th, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

A view or judgement or appraisal formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.

Definition of Opinion

Loved family members have faced a life-changing medical challenge the past two months. What has been one source of their and my stress? People stating their opinions as facts.

I have opinions, and I believe you do, too. We take facts, analyze them, come to conclusions that may or may not be correct, and present them as facts.

Or we substitute our opinion when we believe —or hope—the facts are wrong.

Or we embellish the facts until they become lies. (Eve added her embellishment in the Garden of Eden.)

Current politics desensitized me to pointing out opinions presented as facts. Arguing for truth felt useless. However, during our family’s difficult days, the manipulation or disregarding of truth has caused misinformation and stress that cannot be ignored.

What do I wish I had known? To point out immediately opinions versus facts. What have I learned along the way? To take a hard stand for truthful facts.

Comment is free, but fact is sacred.

C.P. Scott, British Journalist and Publisher

Decisions

Dream Big Dreams? No Thanks.

May 17th, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

I’ve got dreams so big they’d scare some people.

Dolly Parton

As long as your dreams don’t involve me, Dolly, go ahead and chase them. Thinking about orchestrating a big dream crushes me the same way as being encouraged to become a world-changer. (See here.)

The dreams-coming-true parts of my life were gifts from God. Many grew from small undertakings, which required the intervention of others.

Favorite books from childhood were set on Governor’s Island. My husband’s business trip made a wish-come-true visit possible.

I can’t follow the cliche of aiming for the stars in hopes of hitting the moon. Why waste my energy if all I want is the moon. I tell myself that the Wright brothers didn’t attempt a rocket in hopes of settling for an airplane.

I enjoy reading biographies of famous artists and lesser-known scientists. They worked hard and followed their passions. They were grateful for their opportunities and rejoiced when their work was successful. Few dreamed big dreams.

Do you dream big dreams like Dolly?

Lies We Tell, Parenting

You Can Be Anything You Want To Be

May 10th, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

I snatched the sticker below as soon as I saw it because I believe we set others up for hardship, and sometimes failure, when we say, “You can be anything you want to be.

Found in an independent bookstore

Taylor Swift’s parents believed she could be anything she wanted to be. They backed her with their wealth, connections, and a move to Nashville when she was thirteen.

Dolly Parton believed she could be anything she wanted to be. Though poor, her family recognized her gifts and sacrificially rallied around her with the skills and connections they did have.

What about the rest of us?

After years of observing, I believe it’s harder and takes longer to accept the reality of limited opportunities or a mismatch of abilities and dreams when parents, teachers, and friends spend years saying, “You can be anything you want to be.”

What am I learning to say when someone shares a dream?

“You can be whomever God wants you to be because he will bring the opportunities and equip you.”

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9 ESV

Memories, Parenting

Perhaps I Did Do My Best

May 3rd, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

Memory, my dear Cecily, is the diary we all carry about with us.

Miss Prism, The Importance Of Being Earnest

Yes, but it usually chronicles the things that have never happened and couldn’t possibly have happened.

Cecily, The Importance of Being Earnest

I don’t believe my memories are my imagination, but I do know that memories are tricky. Sometimes I forget the victories and remember the struggles. Sometimes the opposite.  As I think about raising my sons, my memories tell me I could have listened more or played more or many other things more.

Rarely does one get a chance to revisit past situations. Last month—as I cared nonstop for young children for days and days—I got that chance.

Through last month’s filter of sleep deprivation, constant action, fatigue, and rarely having solitude to think, the things I left unsaid and undone while raising my sons were not unreasonable. By reliving my circumstances when my own children were young, I now understand that the things that I wish I had made happen couldn’t possibly have happened.

Perhaps I did do my best. Like you.

Relationships

Sharing Our Experiences

April 26th, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

Tia, put down your phone and watch TV.

My 3-year-old Great-Nephew

I did, although I was texting updates to friends and family who were praying for the child’s father. My nephew was in ICU recovering from heart surgery. Or not recovering most days.

My great-nephew’s request was a funny story to tell until a friend observed that the child wanted me to be invested in his interests, Peppa the Pig. Or was it Paw Patrol that morning?

After consideration, I realized that my husband and I were doing the same. We were asking others to invest in our current interests, my nephew, his wife, and their sons.

After days of working puzzles, blowing bubbles, monitoring the sandbox, and inventing the silliest games, I understood how deeply God wired us to share experiences.

My great-nephews reciprocated. When my husband went for a 14-mile run, they tracked his progress on my app. It thrilled them to watch the dot on the screen that presented Tio’s progress as he ran around a local lake. They were absorbed with the photos on our phones that represented our activities at home.

May God bless you with people to share your experiences.