Faith In Plain Sight

Finding a measure of faith in the everyday.



3 Months….What I’ve Learned Since My Mom Passed Away

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I have been trying for 3 months now to put into words the torrent of emotions that hit when your Mom passes away, but there are just no words. This feeling is indescribable. I am no stranger to death. My big brother passed away 12 years ago, all my grandparents 15 years ago, and I can’t even tell you the number of friends I’ve lost along the way. But there is just something different when it’s your mom. There are just no words. The best I can do is that there is nothing that will make you feel like a very small and frightened child like facing life without your momma for the first time.

So instead of trying to describe this feeling I’m going to tell you what I’ve learned these last three months.  Give me some grace in this post. My thoughts and emotions are still somewhat jumbled.

When your people need you, you show up. No excuses.

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Sometimes life crumbles around you and in my opinion it’s then that you discover the people who are real in your life. Not the ones who are just there to see what they can get out of you, or to ride with you during your highlight reel, but the ones who are really in your life to be a part of it, for the good and the bad. It is a treasure to find those people who will have your back no matter what.

I will never be able to adequately tell you how much all the people who have stood by my side during this major life change have meant to me.

 

Sometimes the people you think will be by your side when the unthinkable happens aren’t When that happens, when someone doesn’t show up for you like to think they should, don’t put them on blast. People are imperfect. They get wrapped up in their own lives and can’t see outside of themselves. Besides, you never know what someone is going through in private. Be the bigger person. Don’t let your pain distort who you are. How they react to you is theirs to deal with and to answer for. Your reactions are yours alone. I can’t say this loudly enough, social media is not the place to air your grievances with someone. Just don’t be that person.

Show up and show off for your people, even if they weren’t there for you when you needed them.

I am reminded of this Mother Teresa quote that says it all. Let’s embrace the wisdom of those who walked this Earth before us.

 

People are often unreasonable and self-centered

FORGIVE THEM ANYWAY

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives

BE KIND ANYWAY

If you are honest, people may cheat you

BE HONEST ANYWAY

If you find happiness, people may be jealous

BE HAPPY ANYWAY

The good you do today may be forgotten

DO GOOD ANYWAY

Give the world your best and it may never be enough

GIVE YOUR BEST ANYWAY

for you see, in the end it is between

YOU AND GOD

It was never between you and them anyway.

-Mother Teresa

 

And just one more wise quote for good measure.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

– Mahatma Gandhi

 

To My Momma….

Yesterday I had Thanksgiving without you for the first time. There have been other tables with other families that I’ve sat at over the years, but the day ALWAYS included you. Never would I ever have dared to miss dinner at your house. It was a good day, Mom. The family I spent the day with, they will never know how much it meant to me to be with them and to be welcomed in so seamlessly, even though I must have told my friend half a dozen times already. Words just don’t do justice to the impact that small act of kindness had on me. They made it a little easier to make it through the day.

My heart and my head are still having trouble processing that you just won’t be here for all of these things anymore. There are reminders of you everywhere I turn. I see pumpkin pie and I think of that buttermilk pie you made that you forgot to put sugar in. Oh, it was so bad! The other day there was a funny challenge on Facebook where you were asked to text your mom and ask her how long you microwave a 25lb turkey and then share what she said. I can just see you shaking your head as you tell me that you can’t microwave a turkey! I still can’t fathom that you aren’t there for me to call with these silly things. I’m supposed to be able to call you with all the questions I have. I wasn’t ready for you to go. There are still so many things I still just don’t know how to do like you did them. It just doesn’t feel real that life won’t include you anymore.

I’ll be ok, Mom. I have people. I have amazing people, but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss you every single second of every day. You are never far from my thoughts. Life is still a little bit one day at a time right now, but the tears, they come less frequently and the memories, they bring warmth and joy.

I love you, Mom!

 

 

Godspeed,

Mollie  <3

 

 

 

Collect {Five Minute Friday}

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We are collectors in this life.  We collect experiences.  And like the things in our house, we showcase some of those experiences by posting them on our social media or telling everyone we meet about them.  Others, like a box of old mementos and letters from a failed relationship hidden in the back of a closet, we hide away from the rest of the world out of shame or fear of what people will think.  But it’s those moments, all of those experiences that combine to make us unique and special and perfectly who we are.  It’s that memory that pops up for us that shapes the way we react to the next experience in a different way than anyone else.  It’s your collection of experiences that touches the world, shapes other people’s lives and tells them that they are not alone in the struggles of life.  Go ahead and hide the things that you need to, but if you’re brave enough bring it all on out to the living room and let people identify with the things that make you who you are.  Let them hear the echoed “me too” when they see something familiar in your story.

 

Godspeed,

Mollie  <3

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more and/or join this week’s link-up here!

When Sundays Aren’t An Option {Review}

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This year has been about redefining life for me.  So I would like to talk about redefining how we teach our children about Jesus.  I am a single mom with two wild and crazy little boys.  Let me tell you, co-parenting is hard!  Especially when you share time with your littles and can’t do all the things you would like to do with and for them.  For me, one of the biggest problems is that they go to their dad’s on weekends, so they don’t go to church.  They are rarely with me on a weekend and he does not take them.

What do you do when taking your kids to church on Sundays isn’t an option?

There are resources available for you if you just look for them.  There are books and children’s devotionals, even tv shows that teach the lessons from the Bible, and don’t forget the most valuable resource of all, The Bible itself!  I will leave you to sort through those.  But there is one that I just have to mention.  I love this family devotional written by my friend Susan Chamberlain Shipe!

In 52 Commands of Jesus for Children Susan not only provides 52 scripture based devotionals, she also sprinkles in tips for helping to drive the points home.  While gently lending a reminder to parents that we too are still ever learning these lessons alongside our children.  I’ve never seen a devotional of this magnitude that truly teaches both parent and child.  This truly is a devotional for the whole family!  While there are 52 lessons contained within these pages, I believe the true lesson for parents is to walk in grace while teaching our children.  We after all have been at it a lot longer than they have and we still haven’t perfected our walk with Jesus.

You can pick up your copy here!!!  I promise you won’t be sorry you did!

Did I mention the coloring pages?  There is one that goes along with each weekly lesson and you can print however many you want off from here!  Your kids will love them!  Mine did.  Mommy may have even colored a page!

 

But what else is there?  This past school year I accepted an invitation from a dear friend to go to a weekly women’s Bible study group at her mother’s church.  They had childcare in the form of an AWANA program.  AWANA is a nonprofit program that teaches children to know, love and serve Christ.

My kids absolutely loved it!  They had such fun every Wednesday night!  They would fight over who got  to recite their weekly verses for me to show me that they had memorized them first!  The best part, they weren’t just learning them and forgetting them.  One night I was telling my oldest about a song that refers to John 3:16.  I started the verse and he jumped right in and finished it!  Nothing will make a momma’s heart smile more than knowing here babies and learning about Jesus every week from a great team.  But sadly, when the school year came to an end, so did the AWANA program.  What now?

Now comes what I affectionately like to call the Tour De VBS!  We have a ton of local churches that provide free week long Vacation Bible School programs for children, and they are spread out throughout the summer months.  They are usually around two hours a night for a week and they are theme based Bible programs.  My kids are currently in their third week of VBS, this week at our own church which excited this mom!  It gives them a chance to learn about Jesus and have some interaction with other kids their ages.  It is hard to go from being in school with classmates everyday to being home with mom everyday.

There is always of course, that they learn by example.  When they ask me if I went to church on Sunday I had better be able to truthfully tell them that I did.  They see me reading my Bible throughout the week and it is always on the table by my computer.  It may not be perfect and it is definitely non-traditional, but that is what we do to combat the problem of not being able to go to church on Sundays.  Sometimes you just have to think outside the box.

Do you have any other non-traditional tips for me?  I am always looking for ways to improve and win at this mom thing!

Godspeed,

Mollie  <3

Worth {Five Minute Friday}

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YOU have to know your own worth before anyone else will recognize it in you.

Who are you?  Do you really know?  Have you taken the time to really think of what makes you, you?  Of what makes you unique?  To really do this accurately you have to be able to drown out all the voices that try to tell you who you are and focus in on the only voice that truly knows.  Can you hear Him whispering in your ear?  When you set out to discover your worth, let His voice be the loudest one you hear.  Let Him tell you of all the great gifts and talents He has placed inside of you.  Be prepared though, as soon as you let His voice be louder, all of the other voices are going to try to win out and tell you that you’re not all the beautiful and wonderful things He says you are.  When you’ve got it, come back and tell me.  I would love to know those places inside you that were planted and are being cultivated by God.

 

Godspeed,

Mollie <3

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more and/or join this week’s link-up here!

Expect {Five Minute Friday}

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Sometimes I just want to scream, “What do you expect from me?”  There are so many things that are expected of us in this life, and there are in turn so many things that we expect out of life.  I learned long ago, that expectations weigh us down.  It’s like constantly hanging onto the what if’s that life can sometimes leave us with.  I know what it is to be stuck in the never ending cycle of what if I had done this and what if I had said that….that does nothing but keep us trapped in the past, wishing for a future that is never coming.

You can hold onto your expectations and let them drown you, or you can embrace life unexpected and let it dazzle you with it’s brilliance!

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I fought it for a long time and tried to hang onto what was and what I thought should have been, but there is no good in that.  No peace of mind.  Now, I am trying my best to fully embrace this outside the box life unexpected that God has put me smack in the middle of.  I don’t always love it, and some days I get frustrated with it, but that’s when faith comes in handy.  My life verse is Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  On those days when I get frustrated with this life, I just take a minute to remember that God has it all under control.

Godspeed,

Mollie <3

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more and/or join this week’s link-up here!

Future {Five Minute Friday}

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One short year ago my future looked different than it does now.  I expected to be married with my two boys and his two girls, a crazy dog and two cats.  That’s what today was supposed to look like for me a year ago.  But life happens and the future changes and evolves to meet it.  One future picture fades as another stands up to take it’s place, and on and on it goes.

I have found in life that when one future picture fades, it often leads me into a place of self discovery.  With the fading of that last picture I discovered a new passion hidden within me for helping people realize their health and fitness goals as a Beachbody Coach.  I absolutely love it!  I don’t think I would have found it had that old picture stayed intact, because everything I was, was all wrapped up in the life I was living then.  I wasn’t looking for new opportunities then.

Somewhere along the way I’ve heard the phrase, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.”

Dream anyway.  Make your plans.  Just don’t hold too tightly to them.  No matter what the future holds or doesn’t hold, one thing has to be constant.  You have to believe that God has it all in hand.  That He knows what He’s doing, and that everything will work out just the way it’s supposed to.

What are your plans?  Go ahead, tell me.  Promise I won’t hold you to them!

 

Godspeed,

Mollie  <3

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more and/or join this week’s link-up here!

Truth {Five Minute Friday}

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Don’t let love skew your view of the truth.

I found that phrase written in the pages of my Bible some months back during a Bible study.  Over the months that phrase has come back to me time and again, shedding light where it was meant to.  Have you ever really examined your truth?  YOUR truth, not the one that someone else tried to impose upon you?

As I look back over the last year and the path it has taken, I couldn’t have orchestrated it if I had tried.  I can see God’s hand at work. His hand of protection shielding me from even more pain than I was already in the middle of, even when I didn’t want that protection.  His hand of guidance in finding the path I was meant to follow.  I can see His hand in friendships forged and passions discovered!

So, my truth, the one I fought so long to come to terms with, is that the box that my ex tried to fit me in was never meant for me.  It was too small, and I am more of an outside of the box kind of girl.  That love that I fought to keep, well he wasn’t meant for me either.  He just didn’t fit.  But what God has lead me to, is that the qualities that I still struggle to let go of in that old love, they will exist in someone else.  Someone who will better know how to love me.  In someone who will fight for me, and who will spend his time searching for the smile on my face before finding the one on his own face.
Godspeed,

Mollie <3

 

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more by clicking on the button below and/or join this week’s link-up here!

Should {Five Minute Friday}

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The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost has always been one of my favorite poems.

I feel like I stood at that place where the road split for a long time.  Looking down one, you see all the things I “should” do.  The things my parents and friends and the world in general think a single mom in her 30s should be doing.  Then there is the other road, the one where I have to beat my own path.  The one where the one thing I should be doing is following the commands Jesus laid out in the New Testament, and heeding His call when He tells me to move!

You guessed it, I took that second road.  I took it rather begrudgingly at first.  ( I have this picture in mind of God taking me by the hand and dragging me kicking and screaming down the road.)  But now….Let me tell the beauty and sheer joy that comes when you stop living by the world’s should, and start chasing after God’s instead!

I am a writer and a Beachbody coach.  I spend my days talking to people and pouring out what God pours into me.  I can’t tell you how many shades of out of my comfort zone all of those things were.  But I LOVE this crazy, outside of the box, out loud and in full color life I am living!

I urge you to heed God’s call.  No matter where it takes you.  And no matter who thinks you shouldn’t.

 

Godspeed,

Mollie <3

 

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more by clicking on the button below and/or join this week’s link-up here!

 

Enough {Five Minute Friday}

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Enough already!  Enough with the self- loathing, the body shaming, the negative thinking.  Enough with being just another person telling yourself that you’re not good enough.

What if we all practiced self love instead?  What if we modeled self love instead of picking ourselves apart in front of the world and in private?  What’s the picture you want to paint for your children?  Do you want to teach them to hate themselves, or do you want to teach them to overcome the normal way or thinking and to love themselves?

God created each and every one of us in His image.  You are beautiful/handsome just the way you are.  It is true that there was only One who was perfect, so be aware of your faults.  Strive to better yourself, but be kind to yourself along the journey!

In January I made a decision to get in shape.  I will admit that my driving force then was the feeling that I got when I looked in the mirror.  I cringed every time in disgust at how I had let myself go.  And so I joined Beachbody and soon after became a coach myself.  I am blessed that the team God placed me in promotes self love.  So, find a tribe who will love you where you are, and who will show you how to love yourself better.

NOW HERE’S THE REALLY IMPORTANT PART!  ARE YOU LISTENING?

You are beautiful.  You are good enough, right now, just as you are.  You don’t have to go down the checklist of things you want to change about yourself before you will someday be enough.  You are already enough!

 

Godspeed,

Mollie  <3

 

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more by clicking on the button below and/or join this week’s link-up here!

 

Define {Five Minute Friday}

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So often we look to the world to define us, to tell us if we’re good enough and if we’re doing things “right”.  Now take a minute to think about how awesomely wrong that is.  If you step back and take a long hard look at the world we live in, it is a bleeding gorey mess.  The world is broken, why would you ever let it define who you “should” be?

So tonight I come to you with a challenge and an invitation!

First the challenge:  I challenge you to take the time to redefine the standards that you live your life by.  Redefine the influences that you let become that inner voice telling you how you’re doing.  I challenge you to let the still small voice of God that whispers in your ear to become that defining force in your life.  I know that it’s asking a lot to let go of the world’s view of you and cling to the invisible God’s view of you instead.

I believe that when you stop letting the world define you, and start letting God redefine you, you become a force to be reckoned with.

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I would like to invite you to join me in my new series Life Redefined as I travel the road of redefining my own life by God’s standards.

 

Godspeed,

Mollie  <3
This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link-up. FMF is where bloggers gather together to form a writing flash mob where we all write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes with no editing! Sound like fun? You can learn more by clicking on the button below and/or join this week’s link-up here!