Five Minute Friday one-word prompt: Wait
I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. Psalm 40:1 (NLT)
Oh, no! What went wrong?
The snickerdoodle recipe said to roll the dough into balls and place them two inches apart on the cookie sheet. After the maximum baking time, they haven’t budged. They’re still balls. And even though this is my first attempt at making snickerdoodles from scratch, I’ve seen and eaten enough to know they’re not supposed to hold this shape.
I scroll through the recipe again. What did I miss? A liquid ingredient? No. Was I supposed to press them down like peanut butter cookies? No. The instructions say nothing about doing that.
From what I see, I followed the recipe exactly, but these first eight cookies are taking much longer to bake—double what the recipe says—and they’re not behaving as I expected. Ideas churning, I stare at the sixteen snickerdoodle cookie dough balls waiting to go into the oven. What do I need to do to ensure they spread out? The timer beeps, so, with no time to waste, I use two fingers to smash every ball of dough in one direction and then the other.
I crack open the oven door and peer inside. Covering the baking sheet are little puffy pillows (not balls) coated in sparkly sugar and the most beautiful shade of browned cinnamon.
My heart sinks.
High-altitude baking is tricky; I’m aware. Why did I panic over a longer than expected baking time? Why didn’t I check the first batch of cookies again before flattening the rest in my own strength?
I’ve got eight picture-perfect snickerdoodle cookies. I could've had twenty-four.
If only I had waited.
And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. Hebrews 6:15 (NASB)