Cookies

 Pull out recipe

Wipe down counters

Keep the dog out of the kitchen 

Pull hair up in a bun

Retrieve ingredients

Follow the recipe

When you look up a recipe for your favorite cookies you will find a photo, a portrait of the perfect cookie. The thickness, color, diameter, disbursement of chocolate chips or nuts, or whatever is inside are all laid out in that photo. Follow the directions exactly and you will create this magical cookie. The cookie will wow its tasters, people will praise the cookie and maybe even the baker.

But what if you tried your best to follow those directions, and the cookie isn’t exactly what you hoped for?

Then you question yourself.

Did I add enough sugar? Was it the right sugar? What is the exact temperature of “room temperature”? Was the baking soda old? Was the salted butter salty enough? Was 325 degrees on my oven really 325 degrees? How in the world did a dog hair get in the pan when I wiped all the counters down and pulled my hair up and removed the dog from the house?

Sometimes we try our very best, with the ingredients and equipment we have available and still that cookie doesn’t turn out as we hoped.

Maybe this isn’t about a cookie at all.

Although, I did completely ruin a batch of Butterfinger Chunkies this year and I cannot figure out how.

Maybe it is about raising our children, a marriage, friendships, success at work or life in general.

I have some things in my life that don’t necessarily seem to be turning out the way I hoped. I can see how I could have done some things better or differently, but I also see all of the things I have done right.

Through the muffled cries in a hot shower, I hear a small voice...how many new types of cookies were created when a recipe didn’t quite turn out?

Thankfully, people and relationships aren’t cookies. They are not beyond repair.

And thankfully, I am just a sous chef, a pastry assistant to the One who has all of these things that break me and bring me joy in His hands.