On Chocolate Chip Cookies and Wisdom

We recently had some sweet friends of ours from Maryland visit with their one year old daughter.  I have known Steph since she was a baby, but our relationship really started forming back in my college days when I would do summer Bible studies with middle school girls.  We did some more Bible studies when she was in high school and I was a young married girl.  Joey came along their senior year of high school and his life was drastically changed when he got saved and gave his life to Christ.

During their college years, they spent many weekend nights around the kitchen table in our little townhouse.  We would play cards and games, laugh and joke around, get in deep conversations about spiritual things and the meaningful stuff of life. Oh, and I would bake homemade chocolate chip cookies.  When I knew the gang was heading over I made sure I had ingredients for cookies, and just told them to bring a couple gallons of milk.  I can't tell you how many Friday nights we opened our door to see our little stoop filled with college students holding milk!  Our milk and cookie game nights forged some deep friendships.  Joey is now a youth pastor, and on the last night of their recent visit, he requested some homemade chocolate chip cookies like old times.  And after sneaking some of the dough we ate them hot out of the oven with cold glasses of milk, just like we used to.

It's funny how something simple like homemade cookies can make you feel.  Warm, accepted, loved, comforted.  They make you feel at home.

When Madi was a baby, my sister-in-law Karen gave us what has turned out to be one of my all time favorite children's books.  It is titled Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons, written and illustrated by Amy Rosenthal and Jane Dyer.  I think she gave it to Madi on her first birthday, and we read it countless times, to the point where some of Madi's first words were completing the little sentences in this book.

The little nuggets of wisdom are all explained in terms of cookies with charming illustrations.  Here are a few examples...

COOPERATE means,

How about you add the chips while I stir?

MODEST means,

you don't run around telling everyone you make

the best cookies , even if you know it to be true.

LOYAL means

that even though the new person has a much bigger cookie

I'm sticking by you and your little cookies

because you're my very best friend.

And one of my favorites, found on the last pages of this delightful book...

WISE means,

I used to think I knew everything about cookies,

but now I realize I know about one teeny chip's worth.

And isn't that true?  I mean, a decade or so ago I was sure I "knew" so much about life, marriage, parenting, ministry, and lots of other things.  Ha. What I do know now is that the more I actually know, the more aware I am of how much I have to learn.  The further I get into life the more I realize how much I need God's direction because I am desperate for Him.  As I grow in wisdom I am aware I need Him with every breath, with every step on the journey.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

One more thing about homemade cookies, though.  I have discovered that they are always a well received pick-me-up!  It is a very simple but special way to tell someone they are loved and thought of.  So next time you make a batch, set aside a few for your family and give the rest to some friends or neighbors or someone in need of a hug.  Because as the little child says to a tearful and distressed kitty in our cookie book,

COMPASSIONATE means,

Don't worry, it's okay.

You can have part of my cookie.