Category: Relationships

Book Recommendations, Parenting, Relationships

A Fresh Start: Gordon Korman

April 4th, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

Gordon Korman is one of my favorite authors. I binge read his books after I discovered them. (See here and here.) My friend Barb recently reminded me of my favorites, The Unteachables and Restart.

In the aftermath of celebrating Easter, The Unteachables and Restart would be good family read alouds for those ten and older. While not explicitly Christian, they explore two good questions: What does it mean to forgive and be forgiven? What does it mean to have the opportunity to start a new life?

In The Unteachables, teacher Zachery Kermit was shunned and relegated to the worst classrooms after an eighth-grader’s folly. Twenty-seven years later, Mr. Kermit’s former student repents, seeks to make amends, and be forgiven. His teacher resists while simultaneously helping his current students rise above injustices done to them.

In Restart, Chase has amnesia after falling off a roof. Why is his stepsister afraid of him. Why do classmates avoid him? As Chase’s memory returns, he is appalled he was a bully and wants to change.

Although the themes are serious, the creative plots and memorable characters entertain and lead to great discussions. Can we forgive the deep hurts inflicted on us and by us?

God's Faithfulness, Relationships

Relationship Scorekeeping

March 28th, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

I know someone who keeps score in her relationships. You only get one strike before you are out unless you have money or connections. She not only admits it, but she also believes it is right. I’m in her circle right now, but I know my position stays precarious because her standards are high—standards she can’t even meet.

Thankfully, God deals in grace rather than points.

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Romans 11:6 (ESV)

If God set standards he couldn’t meet, I would not only be irritated but also angry. Like immutability and truthfulness (see here and here), I didn’t fully appreciate God’s perfection in meeting his own standards—and giving me grace when I didn’t meet them—until I experienced the antithesis. I may not always be learning more along the way, but what I have already learned keeps going deeper.

The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

Deuteronomy 32:4 (ESV)

Relationships, Winter

Stripped Bare

March 21st, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

My parents purchased their newly-built 1959 house in a subdivision that had once been a farm. The result? A lack of neighborhood trees. The squirrels I saw in my grandparents’ Tennessee backyard—attracted by my grandparents’ large oaks—were exotic to me. As a child, I thought squirrels didn’t live in North Carolina.

Perhaps my lack of childhood trees led to my extra attentiveness to the trees during a 1984 Thanksgiving trip to Pennsylvania. And the fact that I was embroidering a winter scene of bare trees while my husband drove. Miles and miles of trees stripped bare made a beautiful memory.

Decades of enjoying trees striped bear of their leaves

have shown me beauty,

struggles for resources such as sunlight,

hidden treasure,

and unexpected twists and turns.

The same has been true with the people in my life. As the adornments in their lives are stripped bare by age and circumstances, their beauty, struggles, twists and turns, and hidden treasure have been exposed.

Parenting, Relationships

Please Tuck me In

February 21st, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

One dear aunt reveals her worry about her retired daughter being single by asking “Who will bring her a cup of tea?” (See here.)

During a harder than expected recovery from knee surgery, I have received many cups of carefully brewed tea from the Night Nurse aka my oldest son. (My husband is the Day Nurse.) The tea, no matter how loving brewed, cooled, and lemoned, does not compare with being “tucked in.”

Don’t be deceived. The nerve block hadn’t worn off.

I appreciated my son carefully rearranging my pillows and pulling up my blankets after bathroom trips or medicine time. However, one day while reading, I was surprised at the impact this sentence had.

Will you come and tuck me in?

I was being tucked in by the Night Nurse. Children are regularly tucked in, but adults? And yet that was what was happening to me after I was up during the wee hours of the night. It was lovely.

I last remember tucking in my sons when the oldest was a tween. How sad. I wish I had known that one is never too old to be tucked in at night.

Who do you tuck in?

God's Faithfulness, Parenting, Relationships

We All Need Words to Pray

February 14th, 2026
Mollie T. Cox

Sometimes I just don’t know how to pray for someone. Sometimes my prayers have gaps. (See here.)

Along the way, I learned that turning to hymns can help.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me save that Thou art;

Thou my best thought by day or by night;

Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light.

Translated by Eleanor Hull 1912

During one prayer time, my friend Katie and I prayed Be Thou My Vision for each of our children. She recently reminded me that I had prayed it for her.

Be Thou (Name’s) vision O Lord of (her/his) heart;

Naught be all else to (her/him) save that thou art.

Thou (her/his) best thought by day or by night.

Waking or sleeping Thy presence (Name’s) light.

A few times we prayed a Psalm for our children, inserting their names.

No matter how lacking my prayers, the good news is that I’m not on my own. Jesus intercedes for me (Hebrews 7:25 and Romans 8:34) as well as the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26)

Do you have a favorite Psalm or hymn to pray?