Spirit Daughters of the Most Creative Being in the Universe

I was recently going through a stack of papers in my closet as I was trying to organize. I came across a paper that had this quote:

"God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged, the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to us the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that we might know the joys and glories of creation."
Thomas S. Monson (Teachings of Thomas S. Monson, p. 76)

Isn't that beautiful? Our Father in Heaven not only leaves things unfinished so that we can work and learn, which is important, but also so that we can "know the joys and glories of creation". He knows that feeling we have when we start from scratch and work hard and take time and then see an end product whether it be a painting, a sculpture, a piece of music, building a cabin, or something simple, which is what I do, and create a meal.

There is a special feeling that comes from creating something from nothing. And usually we want to share that creation with those we love. It makes us happy when others appreciate it.

The quote reminded me of President Uchtdorf's talk Happiness, Your Heritage from a General Relief Society Meeting in 2008 and it talks about how creating makes us happy.  Below is a portion of the talk.




"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.

You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter."

I do not have the talents that many who I know do to create art or music or beautiful hairstyles so I'm glad that he listed a few things that I could create like memories and laughter. What will you create today?

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

What delicious, lemony, soft-on-the-inside-crispy-on-the-outside cookies! I made these last month, and I'll be making them again this month. It's posted on Lauren's Latest  and made about 2 dozen cookies for the size I made.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

½ c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
½ t. vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 t. lemon zest
1 T. fresh lemon juice
¼ t. salt
¼ t. baking powder
⅛ t. baking soda
1-½ c. flour
½ c. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease light colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies no longer look shiny. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
*If using a non stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.