I hope my title sparked your curiosity and you are intrigued to read more. This is not one of my regular posts this one is a bit more about me and what I believe. As it relates to making sugar cookies. That is how I came up with the title 59 Sugar Cookies and the Prince of Peace.
If you have ever attempted to make those beautiful decorated sugar cookies there is a process involved and it takes time. First you have to make your dough and roll out the cookies.
To keep the cookies from spreading during the baking process I like to chill my cut out cookies for at least 30 minuets if not longer. One thing I love about these decorated sugar cookies is that once they are baked you can leave them out a couple of days without decorating them. This doesn’t dry the cookies out at all but you don’t want to leave them out too long before decorating because you have another drying time involved with the icing.
I volunteered to make a lot of sugar cookies for a church activity. 59 cookies to be exact. Because I like to make my cookies on the thick side I was only able to get a dozen cookies out of each batch of cookie dough. If you do the math I needed to make about 5 batches of cookie dough and I don’t do double batches. I waited until the last minuet to get all the cookies baked. Then it was time to decorate all the cookies and then they had to dry for at least 24 hours before they could be packaged and taken to the activity. It took be three batches of icing before I got the recipe and consistency right. Yup I went through a lot of powdered sugar.
It has been a very long time since I had made these sugar cookies and decorated them with the fancy royal icing. I got the piping bag filled with the outline icing and I started to get the outline on these cookies. Because I had left everything to the last minute I was in a crazy rush to get these cookies done. I started with the first cookie. It was a mess. I started on the second cookie. It was a mess. I tried a third cookie. You know where I am going with this. After making a mess of about 5 cookies I had to just step away. I needed to take a break but I also was running out of time to get these cookies done.
After a short break I went back to the cookies. With the time away from the cookies I was able to breath again, I was able to think about what I was doing wrong and how I was making a mess of these cookies. I could not afford to mess up any more. I was stressed about these cookies. I had to figure out how not to mess up again. I had made these cookies before and they were beautiful. What was I doing wrong this time? What did I need to do to finish these cookies?
As I contemplated this situation it dawned on me. I was in such a hurry to get these cookies finished, I did not even enjoy making these sugar cookies. I just wanted to get them done. In my rush to get the cookies finished I made more of a mess than I needed to. It was at that moment that I realized. With every cookie I had a fresh start to make it beautiful.
I just needed to slow down, concentrate on what I was doing and pay attention. When I realized these things is when I was able to make 59 perfect sugar cookies. I slowed down and realized how much I really did enjoy making these sugar cookies. I was grateful I had the opportunity 59 times to make another beautiful cookie.
How many times in our lives do we make mistakes that we often think there is no coming back from them? How many times do we think we have done something so horrible there is no forgiveness? I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I think I have done something so bad that I feel like I will never be forgiven.
This is where The Prince of Peace steps in. Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. He has provided a way for pretty much everything to be forgiven. It is a wonderful thing called Repentance. The ability to make mistakes and have them forgiven. This is not handed out freely, the repentance road is one that I personally have traveled down. I had to first knowledge I made a mistake. Then I had to ask for forgiveness, promise to never do it again, and if needed talk to my clergy about it. The Savior then steps in to make up where I cannot and my mistakes are forgiven.
Just like my sugar cookies. I knew I was making mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes from the frosting to the actual decorating of the cookies. I had to figure out what I needed to do to fix the cookies and I had the opportunity to no longer make the mistakes. The Savior Jesus Christ allows us a fresh start with the beauty of repentance.
As the Easter season approaches our Savior taught about many things this season we are focusing on eight principles the Savior taught:
- Faith
- Compassion
- Forgiveness
- Repentance
- Gratitude
- God’s Word/Scripture
- Prayer
- Hope
For more information on what I believe and these principles Jesus Christ The Prince of Peace taught, you can find more at mormon.org
You just gave me a reflection on my own current crafty situation. I’m quilting a quilt for a fallen officer’s mother. It’s not my pattern, I’m just finishing it. Over the last couple of days on a deadline and now past it, I have had many troubles on the project. The challenge is it’s not enjoyable and I’m rushing to get it done. Time to shift that focus and try a new.
The cookies look lovely, glad you were able to complete them.
Tisha, sometimes were so close to the situation its hard to see that stepping away can actually be the right thing to do! Good luck with your quilt I am sure it will turn out beautifully!