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September 28, 2022

Snickerdoodle cookies for Jesus

Our youngest daughter, Jody, lives in Oregon. She is a stay-at-home mom with two young children—Tucker, 6, and Emma, 3. She and her husband are very intentional about reaching out to others and, as a result, are teaching their children to love serving as well.

One day several years ago when Tucker was 3, she called to share this story of how God had used her little boy to bless a family in need. Here’s Jody’s story.

“It started out like any other morning in our household—early. This leaves lots of room for a stay-at-home mom like myself to come up with ways to keep little ones busy and out of mischief. It was about midmorning when I decided we should make Snickerdoodle cookies. I used to make them all the time as a little girl and loved rolling the dough into balls and then into the sugar. I knew Tucker would like it as well. I pre-measured all the ingredients and then let Tucker do the rest. He had so much fun dumping everything into the KitchenAid mixer, and even helped roll the dough into balls and then into the sugar.

“It wasn’t long before Tucker noticed we had leftover sugar to roll more cookies into. ‘Mom, we need to make more cookies. We still have sugar!’ I laughed and then started measuring out more ingredients. This happened a total of three times until we had more than I thought our neighbors could eat.

"It was about this time that I received a text message from a friend that jogged my memory that today was my day to make a dessert and salad for a family who had been really struggling. I was stunned. God had provided the dessert when I had forgotten. He had not only provided one small batch but three. He used my sweet little three-year-old boy without either of us knowing at the time. I then looked at my watch and noticed I had about 45 minutes to drive into town and deliver the cookies and salad before my friend was supposed to take the full meal to the family. My eyes filled with tears as I realized what a special moment not only my son and I had shared in baking the cookies, but in God using me as His hands and feet without me knowing it at the time.”

As families, God wants to use us to be His hands and feet. Mathew 25:40 says that whatever we do in His name is like doing it for Him. Life is busy, and it seems like there isn’t any time in the day to do anything extra, but I want to challenge you to be open to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking. Look for ways to minister to those around you. It can be as simple as making Snickerdoodle cookies.

 For lots of innovative, family outreach ideas, check out my friend Amy Austin’s blog: biblelabs.blogspot.com.

 

Gail Micheff is the Family Ministries director for Michigan Conference.