Author: Mollie T. Cox

Parenting

Keeping Easter

March 29th, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

Guess what I got in my Easter basket? Pink nail polish.

I hid candy from my childhood Easter baskets in my pockets. I snuck the candy into my mouth during worship.

I hope it doesn’t rain and spoil Easter for the children.

The statements above reveal a lot. The first was an interruption to my Easter Sunday School lesson about Jesus’s Resurrection.

Given my observations and childhood experiences, I desired to preserve the meaning of Easter. The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches may choke the Word (Matthew 13:7), but I shouldn’t contribute.

What’s a mother to do? This may sound extreme, but I never gave my sons Easter baskets. My family hosted Easter egg hunts on Saturdays using Resurrection Eggs * that tell the Easter story. Eggs with candy were intermingled.

We had traditional Easter fun, but I separated it from the Easter morning celebration of the Resurrection. We dyed Easter eggs as a Spring activity. Weeks before Easter, we held mini-Easter egg hunts each morning. As the boys aged, they hid eggs for each other. Don’t worry. My sons got enough candy—half-price after Easter.

How do you counter the culture?

* Family Life Ministries

Book Recommendations

Holding Up the Sky Alone

March 22nd, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

One benefit of reading messy fiction is that an author can help me understand myself.

I’ve spent months reflecting on a task I undertook. It was rewarding. I was successful. I was exhausted. I wept at random times when I remembered the experience. I tried to dissect why I had been, and was still being, impacted so dramatically. And then, I reread a favorite passage from a favorite book by a favorite author.

But I wonder if what Hercules was most afraid of when he was holding up the sky wasn’t that he was going to have to hold it up forever. It was that he was going to have to hold it up forever while he was by himself.

The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt

My trauma came from the never-ending, day-to-day aloneness. My husband, son, and close friends encouraged me, but they could not do the work.

I’d assumed I’d have help holding up the sky. As the days accumulated, I realized that the person I expected to take a turn, was holding up her own sky. Alone. And we both might be stuck forever.

Has a novel given you insight into your experiences?

Relationships

So, What Are You Making For Dinner Tonight?

March 15th, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

During daily walks with my friend Kathy, why did we discuss what we were making for dinner or had made the previous day? Why does my book group discuss our meals more than our books? As I typed these questions, I realized I could identify some friends by their meals.

Given the response to a recent blog (see here) it seems that many of you do the same. I have been pondering these close-friend, food conversations, and I have a few ideas.

Meals reflect our tastes, culture, allergies, time limitations, and income levels. Meals reveal our patience as well as the friends and family whom share our table. We save these intimate details for the trusted.

But why do we talk about food so much with those closest to us?

Meals dominate our time, and our friends care how our hours are spent. They appreciate our toil, marvel at our shortcuts, rejoice at our triumphs, and either lament or laugh at our mistakes.

Meals nourish our bodies, but the telling of them nourishes our friendships.

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.

Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

So, what are you making for dinner tonight?

God's Faithfulness, Stories I Share

An Unexpected Gathering of Saints Pt 3

March 8th, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

If you followed my inheritance distribution—see here and here—you still haven’t met everyone. The last to arrive—and feast on pizza and ice cream—were brothers from the local hobby shop.

After the only child of my widowed uncle passed, my uncle turned to model trains as a diversion during his lonely, lonely days.

Uncle Floyd documented the building.

My last conversations with my uncle included his train set. Who would enjoy it?  He finally bequeathed it to a nephew, who took many cars and tracks.

The remainder of the set weighed on me. My husband called a local hobby shop in hopes of finding a taker. The employee who answered the phone said his brother would be interested. Coincidence?  He offered to pay what he could. We declined and only asked him not to take items to sale.

I documented the dismantling, which took over 25 hours. (Above and below)

While we visited, we learned that these strangers were Believers, too.

We received a thank you text that included a promise that the brothers’ use of the materials would make Uncle Floyd proud.

It was a grand day. I look forward to our reunion in heaven.

God's Faithfulness, Stories I Share

An Unexpected Gathering of Saints Pt 2

March 1st, 2025
Mollie T. Cox

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Galatians 6:10 (ESV)

January four years ago, my husband and I flew to Oklahoma to distribute my inheritance. (See here.) What we gave away was overshadowed by the unexpected experiences my inheritance allowed us to have.

The best came through a young boy. I was only told he was staying with my uncle’s friends, and an adult was sleeping on the sofa so the child could have a bed.

Whenever I found a stash of candy, I handed it to him and he passed it around. I thought that being the keeper of the candy would make the child’s day. What made his day was seeing my uncle’s washing machine.

My mother doesn’t have a washer.

The boy’s mother didn’t have a dryer either, but her son’s words provided her with both. The next day, his sixteen-year-old sister came with him to retrieve the appliances. One day, will they tell how God provided during a hard time? My husband and I already have.

Stay tuned for more unexpected, joyful encounters.