For with the measure you (give) it will be measured back to you,” LUKE 6:38 The Christmas Cookies This past Christmas my little girls set out to earn some Christmas money. After some discussion with their father we decided that selling baked goods was the quickest most reasonable way to teach them home economics at this age. We pulled out the cookbooks, settled on our baked goods, watched demonstrations on the Internet, bought the supplies and then dove into the project headfirst. During out first baking binge, Annalise, age ten, commented that this was the first time she had ever cooked with white flour and white sugar. Great! I thought. I won’t feed it to my kids, but I’ll sell it to the neighbors! I wonder if that is a sin? I pondered but kept on stirring. After we baked up a storm, we dressed up the girls, put bows in their hair and made sure they each had on matching shoes (no small task.) Then off to work with Daddy they went. It was an incredibly successful day selling to every single patient that walked through the door. When they grow up, we will tell them that their father told each patient that if they would buy something from the girls, he would knock the same amount off of their dental bill. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Feeling invigorated by their great success, the girls came home and cooked up another storm to be sold the next day to our neighbors. After icing and delicately decorating each sugar cookie they set off to tempt our unsuspecting neighbors with the homemade sweets. I rode in circles on my bicycle from a distance making sure they did not get stolen (the kids, not the cookies.) What a great experience that was. The girls met everyone from Happy Heather to Mean Mike, but one particular couple stood out that day. Knocking on the door the girls saw an elderly man slowly walking to answer it. With a big smile he said, “Well, hello! What do you have there?” “We are selling sugar cookies, sir, fifty-cents a piece. Would you like one?” Alexis beamed. Patting his stomach he said, “Oh no! I have eaten more than enough sugar today, but let me give you a dollar! Anyone who goes to that much trouble must be rewarded,” he said reaching in his pocket. “Whose at the door, Henry?” His wife called from the kitchen. Rounding the corner, wiping her hands on her apron, she greeted the girls with a smile and saw that they were selling cookies. Immediately turning down the offer and patting her stomach as well, she said, “Oh, but let me give you sweet girls a dollar.” The couple insisted the girls take their reward and then sent them off with good cheer. How precious and generous of this couple to recognize the effort the girls put into their work and then to encourage it with a reward. I want to be like this older couple when I grow up. Challenge: Do you treat the knocks on your front door like God’s divine appointments? Or are you too busy to pay attention to the neighborhood child selling Girl Scout cookies or Christmas wrapping paper? Today, pray that God will remind you the next time the door bell rings to show His kindness.
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