God's Faithfulness

Restoring Our Souls

October 31st, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.
Psalm 23:2-3a

My husband and I have been led beside still waters lately. Those detours weren’t on our schedule.

We’ve also seen a lot of green even if it wasn’t always pastures.

Stony Man Trail, Shenandoah Mountains. I had forgotten how restful it was.

Although we were disappointed by a cancelled ranger talk due to expected storms, it allowed my husband and I to have the Stony Man trail to ourselves.

While writing this blog, I took a break and read an article with this quote.

No trip anywhere has ever measured up to the dreams preceding it.
Phillip Gulley Saturday Evening Post

This summer and fall, our ordinary, and especially, our obligation and duty-motivated trips have gone beyond our hopes, let alone any dreams. The unexpected green pastures we were made to lie down in and the still waters that we have been led to have restored our weary souls. God’s promises are true.

God's Faithfulness

Thriving Where One Lands

August 29th, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

This week, my husband sent me a snapdragon photo like the one below.

Obviously, the post was nearby but the rusted black didn’t match our wooden mailbox post or our white porch railing.

The snapdragon was too high to be placed without a ladder. How could an entire flower be blown by the wind?

Upon further examination, this flower was growing in soil. The post has been in place over twenty-five years. My husband believes leaves were trapped and decayed during that time.

An internet search revealed that snapdragon seeds are small and light enough to be caught by air currents and carried for short distances. Their size allows them to nest in small crevices, where they usually don’t have the right light and temperature to survive.

This summer, my family experienced multiple storms and violent winds. We survived but so did a tiny seed that was tossed upward. The seed grew in unexpected and seemingly undesirable conditions.

The Word of God has been compared to a seed. It can also thrive in unexpected and seemingly undesirable conditions.

Decisions, God's Faithfulness

The Blessing of Showing Up

August 15th, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

If you don’t go, you won’t have the story to tell.

The advice above resonated with me because I’m an introvert in a family of introverts. Not only do I have to convince myself to show up, but I have to convince others.

I’m usually glad when I go and regret the times I don’t, but one place I didn’t want to be brought a story I have told.

During August 2003, my mother was in intensive care. Hard, necessary decisions about her care had to be made. I didn’t want to be present at those conversations. I didn’t want others, known to be contentious and irrational, to be present either. Cowardly, I prayed that God would remove the situation. My back up prayer was that if I went, others wouldn’t. God said no to both.

I expected maturity from one relative and received more. He showed wisdom and backed it with Scripture. The usually difficult relatives were thoughtful and respected others’ opinions. My mother’s doctor gave a perspective I have thought about repeatedly and seen to be correct. The unexpected, sweet unity was a blessing that I wouldn’t have wanted to miss. A story worth showing up to receive.

God's Faithfulness, Relationships

Evil For Good

August 1st, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
1 Peter 3:9 (ESV)

It may be hard to repay evil with blessing, but shouldn’t it be easy to repay good with good? Apparently not.

If anyone returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house.
Proverbs 17:13 (ESV)

For years, our family read a chapter of Proverbs after dinner. With thirty-one chapters, we read the one that corresponded to the day of the month. Therefore, I’ve read Proverbs chapter 17 many times.

However, I recently saw Proverbs 17:13 differently—as a call to prayer. I love people who have returned evil for good, and as the decades rolled by, I have seen evil not depart from their households.

I’m especially concerned about someone who returns good by tossing evil like confetti. I care deeply about this person, so I want her to know our gracious God who is slow to anger, abounding in mercy, and ready to forgive. Prayer is my best weapon against her evil.

I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Psalm 23:4 (ESV)

Decisions, God's Faithfulness

Enjoying the Story

July 4th, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

I have told you that my mom reads the last chapter of the book so she can enjoy the story because she knows how it ends. When we were kids, she went to the computer in the middle of a movie to find out how it ended.
My son

I’m guilty as charged. I claim I’ve run out of adrenaline or else I need to save it because my supply is short. That may be true. I didn’t read the last chapter of books when I was young.

Twenty years ago, I stood with my oldest sons for a for a high school graduation photo. I thought, “I wish I had known how it would turn out. I wouldn’t have worried so much.”

As I turn sixty-nine, I want to apply the lesson of fiction to my real life. I want to enjoy my story and the stories of others much more because I know the ending.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Revelation 21:3 (ESV)