A simple drop of water...

If you've read my blog for any time at all, then you know that I don't cook. I really don't like to do it unless I really have time to plan. But I DO like to look at cookbooks. Go ahead and analyze that and let me know what you figure out.

I got a new Taste of Home cookbook recently and DS 4 enjoyed looking through it. For some reason, he was drawn to an Apple Dumpling recipe. He said, "We should make this together." I said, "OK, but not tonight." That was three nights ago. Last night, I asked him to decide if he wanted to make the dumplings or do something else. I forget what the "something else" was, but he chose that. I was, once again, off the dumpling hook.

Tonight he walked into the Family Room and said, "Aren't you going to make the dumplings for me?" Huh??? FOR you? I thought this was supposed to be "together time". BUT, I am also a Mom of four boys who knows that sometimes you CAN do things better (or at least quicker) alone. He told me he wanted me to make them so he could eat them. And I took him up on it.

As I started to mix the dough, I found myself praying: "Lord, please let this work!" I mean, how hard can it be to put shortening, flour, salt, and a little water together? The truth is, I KNOW how hard it can be--for me! I tried to bake Grandma's pie crust one year and failed. So I stirred and I prayed. This is kind of how it went:

2 cups of flour/1 tsp. salt/2/3 c. of shortening--"stir until crumbles form"--{Stir}{Stir}{Fold}{Fold}"Puhleaze!! Come on crumbles!" {Stir} {Stir} {Fold} {Smash}{Stir} "All I need is little crumbles! Please let it start to crumble." {Stir}{Smash}{Turn the Bowl}{Pray}{Stir} And as this continued, I suddenly started to see little flour/shortening balls form. I breathed a sigh of relief. "Half way there," I thought. I found my confidence increasing.

Add 4-5 tbs. of cold tap water until a large dough ball forms. It was at this point, that I nearly LOST it. I DID add 4 - 5 tbs. of cold water and NOTHING seemed to happen. I was stirring, praying, hoping, but it didn't look any different. I was still staring at small crumbles. So, I started adding one or two drops of water at a time and stirring AND praying AND questioning WHY I even started this project!

Then, suddenly, with the addition of ONE drop of water, I found I could make it into a huge dough ball. ONE drop of water made all the difference.

As I sit here watching my DS 4 eating his dumplings, I can't stop thinking about the miracle of the water drop. Now I know it took all the ingredients before that. But it was that final drop that made something out of what appeared to be nothing.

Aren't we like that? Have you ever had one seemingly insignificant event or conversation forever change you? Have you ever BEEN the drop of water that changed someone else? And I'm wondering just how many times I've given up on something just BEFORE the water droplet appeared and changed things?

May we all find ways to bring positive water droplets of change into our own lives and the lives of others. And may those of us who are on the verge of change not give up until the water comes. Because I believe that one drop of water just might change the world!