A Walk in the Park

When is a walk in the park not a walk in the park?

What is a walk in the park? When my wife and I do it, during warmer months, we are actually walking in the McKee Farms Park located less than a block away in Fitchburg. But sometimes a “walk in the park” has nothing to do with walking.

I just smile when I think about the English language and how we say things. I also realize that the word pictures we use might seem easy to understand. However, as I have had opportunities to teach friends who live in India, I become more careful about using language carelessly. Even if the translator has a good grasp of the meanings of different words, the real meaning of something might be missed if I use our favorite metaphors. We use word pictures all the time and don’t even realize we are doing it.

Easy Metaphors and Poecilia Sphenops

I think raising black mollies is a walk in the park. It really is just a piece of cake because they love to eat algae and have lots of cute baby black mollies. I’d say it is child’s play, or like taking candy from a baby. However, I hesitate to say that it is like shooting fish in a barrel. That sounds rather harsh. You see, each of those word pictures tell me that I consider raising and caring for black mollies is very easy. (The molly’s native range runs north from Venezuela and Colombia to Mexico, with isolated populations on some Caribbean islands.) SOURCE

Black Molly Foods

Black Mollies love and eat algae.

“In the wild, black mollies sustain their omnivorous diet with small invertebrates, plant matter, and algae. They will, therefore, appreciate a varied diet of vegetables and high-quality live food. Black mollies will consume all green vegetables, although fish owners will mostly feed them cucumbers, shelled peas, and zucchini. You can provide these vegetables once or twice a week.” – SOURCE

Adult male black mollies

But Beware of Your Mom

Adult male and female black mollies

Mollies are quick to reproduce. The gestation period is around seven to eight weeks, and the female delivers fully-formed fry that are cute but tasty morsels for mom molly. Mollies cannibalize their young ones. Therefore, I provide a lot of live plants for the fry to hide. Although most do, I suspect mom and dad eat some of the youngsters that don’t swim in the plant cover.

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Black Mollies. However, do you see the Pearl Gourami in some of these pictures?

There is, however, one “easy” choice mollies do not face. Jesus spoke of that easy choice and the underlying end of that choice using a word picture. That takes me to…

How to Identify a Follower of Jesus

The follower of Jesus has entered the narrow gate. Jesus said he was the Good Shepherd and the Gate for the sheep. The narrow gate is one that many think is too restrictive. But Jesus was clear when he said he was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Don’t take the “easy” way, as it becomes very hard when life is over. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” Matthew 7:13

Five Minute Friday

This post is part of the weekly Five-Minute Friday link-up.All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.