Have you ever been baking cookies and forgotten an ingredient? Maybe you got distracted and left out the baking powder. At first you didn't notice anything missing and maybe it didn't even seem to matter- at first. When you finally discovered that something wasn't right, perhaps you laughed it off but you didn't feel the same about that batch of cookies because it wasn't what it was supposed to be.

Sometimes those tiny ingredients are easy to forget and don't seem as important because it only takes a teaspoon, sometimes less to get the desired effect.  It is much harder to forget something like flour or butter.  You need so much that it is immediately obvious when they are not there. 

Holidays (and everydays for that matter) can be like a batch of cookies- at least at my house.  The bulk (flour and butter) of our time is caught up in the normal busy day to day combined with decorating, shopping, baking, and attending or performing in myriad concerts, and occasionally some of our vital ingredients (baking powder) are forgotten like scripture study.  Like the cookies, it isn't immediately obvious what was missing  but something is not quite right.  This can make the holiday seem like less than it should.

Fortunately, even if we mess up one day, we have the opportunity to try again the next.  It is amazing how just a few minutes given to scripture study can make all the difference in how we feel about and experience our days, and our holidays. It is like our baking powder and cinnamon providing  leavening and just the right flavor.    

Writing, too is like a batch of cookies.  Do we get so caught up in the bulk of the story and getting it done that we neglect important ingredients?  Do we have our research, build our structure, have the whole grand scheme laid out and forget to ask for guidance?  The words we write will influence those who read them. That is the point, right?  If we have our butter, eggs and vanilla all creamed together, and our dry ingredients mixed and waiting to add and we overlook the most important ingredient, the sweetener, we have wasted our time. What good is a sweet without the sweet?  

We have the desire and gift to create with words. God gave us this desire and gift and would like to make our efforts all that they are meant to be.  We just need to make sure to add the sweetness of His inspiration.    

The quality of our cookies, our days, our holidays and our writings depends on us getting all the right ingredients mixed in, not adding in too many ingredients and avoiding the ones that might ruin them (like anchovies).  I wish you all a Christmas holiday season that is all it is meant to be with all the right ingredients, the sweetness of Heavenly Father's inspiration and no anchovies.