A friend recently gave a great recipe for chocolate chip cookies made with apple butter. Then another friend gave me more cookie recipes in anticipation of the next bake off on the event calendar--Easter.
We have different types of cookies for different holidays. There are standards and then there are subtle changes. That's just like us, we make subtle changes or dramatic, sweeping make-overs. And that's what this column is all about, similarities but also our individual self. Even in our cooking, we find some way to put our signature on it.
When my kids were young, and I had a preschool/day care, a friend of mine gave me a recipe for sugar cookies that never get hard. It didn't matter how much the kids squished it, rolled it, and patted it down, the dough never got hard or crumbly. The left over dough could be put in the refrigerator, taken out, and still be amazingly pliable. Another recipe had to be rolled and baked almost immediately, but despite its lack of flexibility it had a great flavor. These experiences got me thinking.
As human beings we are made from the same basic recipe. Our characters and attitudes are then mixed in, like raisins and nuts to a certain type of dough. We might have different colors depending upon the basic ingredients, but we are still the same thing...a cookie. How we are shaped and mixed is by divine design. At Christian Women Take Root, a wonderful group was formed based on the book Character Makeover--40 days with a Life Coach to Create the Best You, by Katie Brazelton and Shelley Leith. This is not a book strictly for women, men can benefit from it as well. The takeaway is that we are similar in basic needs, structure, and different in processing. That's the part that can put vinegar in the recipe instead of, or along with milk. Mix the two together and you get curdled milk! Yikes!!
The part of making cookies that I used to really enjoy were the different shapes of the cookie cutters. I found really small ones that were perfect for little hands of my preschool/day care children. What a joy to see 
them pound the dough and then press a cutter into the flat, soft dough. The kids would squeal with delight once they discovered that the dough could do more than just be squished and pounded. And that is the joy of life; knowing that we have the same ability to squish and pound, roll out or drop by spoon so to speak. We can determine the ingredients for the most part, redesign ourselves, and become.
Weekly Challenge: What kind of cookie are you? What are your ingredients? Would you like to change the recipe a little or a lot? Are you comfortable with who and what you are? Make a decision about something to change. Remember, we don't have to conform to what others are, but look to their godly characteristics and form but be who God made you to be- -You!
He made the recipe to have the ability to be molded, changed, and perfected. Have a great week, do something different, and make a difference to somebody else!
Love and Hugs,
When my kids were young, and I had a preschool/day care, a friend of mine gave me a recipe for sugar cookies that never get hard. It didn't matter how much the kids squished it, rolled it, and patted it down, the dough never got hard or crumbly. The left over dough could be put in the refrigerator, taken out, and still be amazingly pliable. Another recipe had to be rolled and baked almost immediately, but despite its lack of flexibility it had a great flavor. These experiences got me thinking.
As human beings we are made from the same basic recipe. Our characters and attitudes are then mixed in, like raisins and nuts to a certain type of dough. We might have different colors depending upon the basic ingredients, but we are still the same thing...a cookie. How we are shaped and mixed is by divine design. At Christian Women Take Root, a wonderful group was formed based on the book Character Makeover--40 days with a Life Coach to Create the Best You, by Katie Brazelton and Shelley Leith. This is not a book strictly for women, men can benefit from it as well. The takeaway is that we are similar in basic needs, structure, and different in processing. That's the part that can put vinegar in the recipe instead of, or along with milk. Mix the two together and you get curdled milk! Yikes!!
The part of making cookies that I used to really enjoy were the different shapes of the cookie cutters. I found really small ones that were perfect for little hands of my preschool/day care children. What a joy to see
them pound the dough and then press a cutter into the flat, soft dough. The kids would squeal with delight once they discovered that the dough could do more than just be squished and pounded. And that is the joy of life; knowing that we have the same ability to squish and pound, roll out or drop by spoon so to speak. We can determine the ingredients for the most part, redesign ourselves, and become.
Weekly Challenge: What kind of cookie are you? What are your ingredients? Would you like to change the recipe a little or a lot? Are you comfortable with who and what you are? Make a decision about something to change. Remember, we don't have to conform to what others are, but look to their godly characteristics and form but be who God made you to be- -You!
He made the recipe to have the ability to be molded, changed, and perfected. Have a great week, do something different, and make a difference to somebody else!
Love and Hugs,