It's Beginning to Smell a lot like Christmas

“Our odor memories frequently have strong emotional qualities and are associated with the good or bad experiences in which they occurred. Olfaction is handled by the same part of the brain (the limbic system) that handles memories and emotions. Therefore, we often find that we can immediately recognize and respond to smells from childhood such as the smell of clean sheets, cookies baking in the oven, the smell of new books or a musty room in Grandma’s house. Very often we cannot put a name to these odors yet they have a strong emotive association even if they cannot be specifically identified.” [www.senseofsmell.org]

I find this fact fascinating. It’s something I’ve known for a while, but it sounds more official to put it in quotes and cite a source. Smells can trigger a memory in a flash. This happens to me in the most unexpected times. I think it’s funny when you smell something and it triggers a memory that you didn’t even realize was associated with that smell.

So…what’s with all the talk about smells? I was doing some Christmas baking today! One of the many reasons I love Christmas is because it gives me an excuse to bake lots of goodies. I baked 3 different things today and will bake 2 more things next weekend. I love to give goodies as gifts and I will also be taking some with us to visit Lee’s family and my family.

To avoid forgetting any ingredients, I set out everything I would need today.


I had my recipes handy.


I had my best friend there to help me.


I began by making some of my favorite cookies. I call them KISS COOKIES. They’re delicious!



Kiss Cookies
Ingredients:
48 Hershey’s Kisses
½ cup shortening
¾ cup peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
Sugar

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into mixture.
3. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8-10 minutes (I baked them for 7) or until lightly browned. Immediately press a Hershey’s Kiss into the center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Then, I prepared the dough to make some Christmas sugar cookies. You had to prepare the dough and then let it chill for at least one hour. So, I made the dough and as I was about to cover it with cling wrap, I caught a whiff of its scent. This is where the memory/smell thing comes in. I had a flash of a memory of baking Christmas cookies with my grandma. This is weird because #1-I was not using her recipe for Christmas cookies and #2-I haven’t baked Christmas cookies with my grandmother since I was in early elementary school. So, I have no idea if this dough is what her Christmas cookie dough smelled like. Something about that scent, though, triggered my memory. It also triggered my emotions and I felt an instant joy. I don’t know how to put this into words. It’s just so weird/fascinating to me how a scent can do this. This was just a flash of memory/emotions and then it was gone.



I ended up baking over 5 dozen sugar cookies.

Then, I attempted to decorate them. Decorating is not a strength of mine. It didn’t help that it was late and I was tired from baking and cricuiting all day.



Christmas Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
1 ½ cup butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough on floured surface ¼ to ½ inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6-8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

The last thing I made is my favorite Christmas goodie- chocolate covered peanut butter crackers.



Something about the combination of peanut butter, Ritz crackers, and chocolate is just SO good!

Well that’s all for this weekend’s baking adventure. Next weekend, I will be baking some more yummy goodies.

What Would He Say to You?

*Disclaimer: By writing this, I am not saying that I have my life together and am living 100% for Jesus. These are the things I feel Him showing me and I need to do these things in my life as well.*

The author of the Bible study I’m participating in gave us something interesting to think about: “determine some of the indicators that the church has fallen asleep in regards to the lost.” This topic has come up a lot in things I’ve read and heard recently. One of the main places I’ve seen this has been in Radical by David Platt. So, I would like to share a few of my thoughts on the subject.

My first thought is fairly short. Most of us by now have probably experienced the death of a younger person. I have only personally known a couple of people that passed away too young, but have known of several others. Death is hard to deal with at any time, but it’s especially difficult when it’s unexpected or the person is so young. When this happens, everyone becomes real concerned about that person’s salvation. Did they go to Heaven? One day I was listening to the song, “If I Die Young” by The Band Perry. In it she says “funny, when you’re dead how people start listening.” It kind of hit me. After people die, everyone wants to talk about them and show so much concern for them. Most of all, people begin to show concern for that person’s salvation. Unfortunately, by that time…it’s too late! I don’t mean to sound negative or hateful, but my question is- why are we not concerned with these people’s salvation when we can do something about it? Why do we only question if they had a relationship with God or not when there’s nothing we can do about it?

My second thought is more complex, so bear with me. Also, in the Bible study, the author highlights this verse: Isaiah 29:13 “Then the Lord said, ‘because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of traditions learned by rote.’” This hit me hard. It’s what many of us do. We “play church.” We go to church because it’s what we have always done. It’s what we grew up doing. Sunday’s and Wednesday’s are church days. It’s what our parents taught us to do or we think it’s the “right” thing to do. If these are our reasons for going to church, we’re in trouble! I know I often feel like I’m going to church, singing songs, giving tithe, attending church events, etc. out of habit and routine. What good is it for us to go to church if we are not truly worshiping Him and listening to and obeying His word?

As if this wasn’t bad enough-I looked this verse up in my Bible. My Bible is a study
Bible, so there are notes at the bottom of the page. My notes said that Jesus quoted this particular verse in Matthew 15:7-9 and Mark 7: 6, 7. So, I wanted to see what that was all about. I looked at Matthew first. What I found there was that Jesus was talking to the Pharisees and teachers of the law. During this time, these people were practicing Corban vows. This meant that the person was required to give money to God’s temple. By doing this, many of these “religious people” were neglecting their responsibility to take care of their aging parents. Now, giving money to God is a great thing to do, but not at the cost of disobeying one of God’s commands. These people were taking an easy way out. Giving money doesn’t require a lot of work and it made them look good and religious to others. Taking care of their parents would have required a lot of time, effort, and probably money. It probably also wouldn’t have put them in high standings in the church of that day. This part in Matthew didn’t really hit home with me until I turned over to Mark and read Mark 7:9. Now, this is the same story about the Pharisees doing the Corban vow rather than take care of their parents. Mark 7:9 says “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe you own traditions!”

WOW! I have to start a new paragraph for that one. Do you feel, as I do, that Jesus would probably say that to most “church going people” today? We would rather take the easy way out than actually obey God’s commands. Sadly, in most churches, we would also rather keep our traditions than obey God’s commands. Often, these traditions are good things-just as the Corban vow was a good thing. However, if our traditions are keeping us from obeying God-they’re wrong!

Now, I’ll get on my soapbox. Something needs to change. Christian churches are a negative thing to many people because many of them are filled with “pew packers” or “church members” rather than Christ followers. If we all were Christ followers, we would see an impact being made in our world. There are many people attending churches that seem like good people because they do good things, but are they following traditions or are they following Christ? Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that there are people who are true Christ followers. Sadly, though, I believe that they are in the minority.

By ignoring God’s commands, many churches are disinfecting Christians rather than discipling. I would like to quote David Platt from Radical on this subject. This ties in so well and is very powerful. “Disinfecting Christians from the world involves isolating followers of Christ in a spiritual safe-deposit box called the church building teaching them to be good.” He goes on to describe how in this scenario, you measure success by how big your building is and your goal is to gather as many people as you can in it for a couple of hours each week. In this scenario, you define personal success by what you don’t participate in and what you avoid. He ends by saying, “Though thousands may join us, ultimately we have turned a deaf ear to billions who haven’t even heard His name.” Does this sound familiar? It does to me. Now, let me tell you what he says discipling is. “Discipling Christians involves propelling them into the world to risk their lives for the sake of others. Now the world is our focus and we gauge our success in the church not on the hundreds or thousands we can get into our building but on the hundreds or thousands who are leaving our building to take on the world with the disciples they are making. Disciple making takes place multiple times a week in multiple locations by an army of men and women sharing, showing, and teaching the Word of Christ and together serving a world in need of Christ.”

So, thanks for sticking with me and reading all of this. I know it was a lot to read and take in. Trust me, I know-this is only part of what is going through my head all the time.

Praying through this one,
Megan