Currently viewing the tag: "Molly"
Conversation #1:
“Whatcha playing up there?” I asked, when the girls came downstairs after being in their room a while.
“Hotel. We check people in and out.”
“That’s fun. Who do you check in?—Each other? Your dolls?”
“Oh, no! So far we’ve had Barack Obama, Sara Groves, Selena Gomez, and Ben Stiller.”
Okay…
Could a more random list of imaginary hotel clientele possibly be compiled? I think not.
Conversation #2:
Molly: “They should make a board game of Words With Friends.”
Nathan: “Molly, that’s…Scrabble.”
Molly: “Oh, yeah! It kind of is!”
I found this jotted down in an old note, and it made me laugh:
“Uh, Mom. Why do you have a book called Child Training Tips? I don’t think we need trained.” -Molly Jane, age 5
I laughed because I remembered how offended she was! And because, she hasn’t changed a bit.
For the record, Child Training Tips by Reb Bradley was one of my favorite parenting books when my kids were little, just in case you’re interested. Because, like it or not, we all need trained.
A few days ago, Anne and Molly played with water guns. They squirted and squealed and skipped around, like two little girls who have no idea how to fire guns, but just want to get wet. Which is exactly what they are.
“Hey!” Molly laughed after taking a squirt to the face, “Watch the eyes!”
Anne confidently called back, “Well, I don’t aim! I just fire!”
I don’t aim. I just fire. How many things in my life could be described that way? My physical health: I don’t aim to exercise regularly. I just eat whatever I please. With writing…the books I dream of writing won’t get written unless I aim to write more than I facebook. In my undisciplined speech, my selfish attitude, and even at times when it comes to my parenting, I’m reactive rather than proactive and intentional.
I don’t aim. I just fire.
So what is my aim? The aim in every friendship? My aim for my marriage, my kids, my life? The apostle Paul knew just where to aim.
“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11)
To know Christ—that’s the aim. That’s the goal toward which we “press on”. Knowing Christ and becoming like Him, representing Jesus and pointing others to Him. The aim, in a word, is Christ.
I asked the kids to draw pictures for Ronald, a Ugandan child we support through Compassion.
Later, Molly laid this on my desk.
Different countries, same God. Indeed.
“All nations will be blessed through him, and they will call him blessed.” Psalm 72:17
“But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” John 12:32
“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:2
Molly: “Mom, are you listening to opera?”
Me: “No. Her name is Sandi Patty. She sings high, huh?”
Molly: “Sandi Patty? Heh-heh. Like, a sandy patty? Heh-heh. Dirty burger.”
Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?”…Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. (Jeremiah 8:5-6, 12, NIV)
My Molly Jane has red hair, fair skin and lots of freckles. When she gets embarrassed–say, by a mother who writes about her on the internet, for example–Molly can’t help but blush. And when she blushes, she blushes. Her creamy complexion darkens to match her hair.
Jeremiah wrote that God’s people didn’t even know how to blush. They weren’t even the slightest bit remorseful for their sin. The passage reminds me of a friend whose choices led her away from her marriage, away from the church, away from the Lord. After much pleading and many tears–from my eyes, not hers–she simply “refused to return”. To this day, she remains in blatant sin, “unashamed of her loathsome conduct”. She doesn’t even know to blush.
The truth is, though, I could become just like her. As much as it grieves me to admit it, I could potentially, over time, harden my heart, too. Because of this, I often pray that God would make me feel just awful over my sin. Even the slightest sin, God–make me hate it. I never want such a distance, such a hardening to separate me from Him. I pray the same for my children, too.–That Nathan, Anne and little redheaded Molly would be sick over anything that dishonors God.
Let us hate sin, God, and love only You. Let us, like Molly, always know how to blush.
First published on Sixty-six Books in a Year.
I’ve written before about the fantastic mother-daughter ministry of Dannah Gresh. The girls and I attended a Secret Keeper Girls conference last year, and I’ve been crazy about Mrs. Gresh ever since. This summer, the girls and I followed one of her books of Mother-Daughter dates, and I’ll always treasure the memories made and conversations shared.
Next month, Gresh releases her newest book, Six Ways to Keep the “Little” in Your Girl. I’ve pre-ordered my copy and can’t wait to read it. Between now and the book’s release, Dannah is leading “30 Days of Prayer for Your Daughter”. Read more about it here. If you have a daughter—especially between the ages of 8 and 12—please visit Dannah Gresh’s Pure Freedom and Secret Keeper Girl sites to find out more on this life-changing, life-giving ministry.
Re-posted from December, 2007.
My daughter Molly has the gift–which is often a curse–for telling it like it is. Molly finds no problem with “speaking the truth”, but the “in love” part can be a bit tricky. Basically, she has no tact.
For instance, Sunday I crashed in bed–yes, in it, not just on it–for an afternoon nap. I’d settled the kids in front of a DVD, instructed them not to bother me unless they were on fire, and barely dozed off when I heard the bedroom door creak open. My eyes blinked to see Molly staring back at me.
“Should I bring you the thermometer?” she asked flatly. “You don’t look very good.”
Like I said, she tells it like it is.
Fortunately, God has a different “ability”. Paul told the Romans that God “calls things that are not as though they were.” He doesn’t tell it like it is. He tells it like it isn’t.
What does that mean? It means that when I’m scared, God speaks peace. When I’m empty, He fills. Because of Jesus, I can trade death for life, guilt for forgiveness, and unrighteousness for righteousness!
It means that God is graciously backwards and good.
He “calls things that are not as though they were.” What fantastic news! God tells it like it isn’t.
We had an exciting Sunday at Real Life Church a few weeks ago…over 70 baptisms! Here are my two favorites.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17
“Mom,” Molly said one afternoon, “you know how Mrs. ________ said she’s a stay-at-home mom?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you are not a stay-at-home mom. At all.”
“I’m not?” (I haven’t had a job in over a decade.)
“No. You always go to Barnes and Noble and Panera.”
