Jessica's Marshmallow Cloud Cookies?

"Oh, dear," Anna said with a very dramatic sigh.  "These cookies just aren't turning out!"

"What's that white stuff coming out of them?"  I asked.  The cookies appeared to be some kind of chocolate cookie, but there was some kind of white lava that was emanating from the center of them.

"Dad," Anna said.  "They are Jessica's Marshmallow Cloud Cookies.  They are from Mrs. Fields' Cookie Favorites recipe book, but in the book they look beautiful, but all of mine sort of exploded when I baked them."

"They have marshmallows in the middle?"  I asked.  I guess I'm pretty old school, because growing up, I thought the word "Cookie" was synonymous with "Chocolate Chip."  Certainly my mother never thought of putting marshmallows inside her cookies.

"Yes, Dad,"  Anna said.  She was really upset.  "They are for a cooking contest our class is having."

"I'm sure they'll taste great," I said, reassuringly.

"But Dad, Mrs. Nan said that we would be judged not just on how things taste, but on how they look.  They call it 'Presentation.'"

"Well, I think they look tasty enough to eat and I would give you a blue ribbon," I said.  That didn't seem to help the situation much, but I did help myself to a cookie which was, as I thought quite tasty.

Anna never did figure out the cookie recipe.  She froze the marshmallows harder before she surrounded them with dough, but they still insisted on blowing holes in her cookies once they got heated up in the oven.  Finally, she left the marshmallows out and sadly took Jessica's Marshmallow-Free Cookies to school for the contest.

There is one simple fact that was messing her cookies up.  The reason why marshmallow came out of the cookies when they were heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit in our old Kitchen Aid oven was because that was what was inside of them.

Jesus said, "The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."  (Luke 6:45 ESV)

What comes out of me when I am stressed and under pressure reveals the truth about my heart.  That is the time when the filters are stripped away and anger and bitterness or (hopefully) peace and joy can be truly revealed.

Nothing can come out unless it is first inside.

I pray that each one of us would know the heart transformation that only Jesus can bring.  Only then can we learn the lesson of Jessica's Exploding Marshmallow Cookies.