Baking and Life Are All About the Process

The mountain of yumminess above is thanks to this recipe at smittenkitchen.com for homemade Oreo cookies.

Today I decided I needed to try it so when the Husband stopped at the store and bought me headache reliever a bag of coffee, I asked him to also bring home a pound of unsalted butter.

After dinner, I cleared and cleaned my kitchen counter, or an area to accommodate the mixer and cookie sheets, and got with it. Poor *I* kept asking, "Are the cookies ready?" Sadly, they weren't cooked and filled until after he was not so snugly tucked in. If he were snug, he wouldn't have come back down to ask again, which did get him a promise of a cookie in the morning. They have flour and eggs, don't judge me. ;)

Baking these cookies is fairly simply but also a process and it requires a little bit of patience. Most of the great things in life are like that, don't you think? For instance, the butter in these cookies needs to be at room temperature in order to blend in with the other ingredients. The cookies needed to be the proper size and bake at the proper temperature and then cool before being filled with the frosting which also needed room-temperature butter. (Please don't tell my doctor about the butter.)

In life, like in baking, there is a time and a place for short cuts. Sometimes the short cuts work out and sometimes, all I end up with is a mess. When I was younger, I would have tried to rush the cookie process along, taking short cuts to get it done. As I have gotten older, I have learned to appreciate the process, the journey, as much as the goal.

Life is an adventure. I have discovered that the intended goal is not always as desirable as it seemed from afar. Often, the journey is where I find the most joy and growth, even if the road has been bumpy and filled with detours.

I didn't have any detours in my baking tonight, but as I have shared before, my life hasn't exactly worked out how I planned it. I think that's because God has a recipe, a plan, for me that I am not fully privy to. I try to be aware and pray and wait, but my timing is not God's timing. Let's face it, God has the patience of well....God has an infinite amount of patience and time and I've got a schedule in mind that isn't quite lining up with His. Perhaps I'm taking shortcuts, perhaps I'm skipping a step in God's recipe. Perhaps, I just need to wait...some more.

Since God's not finished with me yet, I am going to enjoy the process, count my blessings and see the gift in this time.

Oh, and I'm going to enjoy the cookies too.

-Peace