Angel Kisses (or Meringue Cookies)

Motherhood is teaching me a lot of things.  It's helping me improve myself (even if it is a slow and sometimes painful process!).  See, in recent weeks and months, I've learned the hard way that 2 year olds are great at repeating what they hear.  Even when it's not nice.  I'm grateful we don't choose to use swear words in our home, because they would have already come out of our little girl's mouth by this point.  But even so, sometimes we as parents say things we shouldn't (like we call something stupid).  Or just the way we say something isn't the best -- for example, when she earns a time out and I'm at my wits' end and I grumpily say "Go to your room!"  She has taken on that tone herself and likes to try to send us to our room when she isn't getting her way.  Sigh.  And so, I'm trying to do better.  Because, even though my saying "I don't care" isn't always done in a negative context, that's how she always uses it.  And it's not the nicest sounding thing coming from a 2 year old.  Which makes me think it's not the nicest sounding thing coming from her mommy, either.  We also want her to learn that there are appropriate ways to express our feelings, such as saying "I'm frustrated" instead of screaming and yelling and throwing.

Ergo...

We did a Family Home Evening lesson on the words we say and how we say them.  We used a Conference talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland called "The Tongue of Angels" (which you can find by following that link).  It is an amazing talk in so many ways.  I loved revisiting it and having new application for it now that I am a mother.  If you're interested in the lesson I put together, just continue reading after the recipe.  We like to have a treat as part of Family Home Evening, and it occurred to me that meringue cookies have also been called Angel Kisses.  How perfect!!  So I did a search on pinterest and found one I liked.  Let me say that I am not an idea person.  I wish I was super-creative and crafty and such.  Alas, I am not.  So having all of these come together in my mind and work so well together, I know beyond a doubt it was inspiration from the Lord.  I know He knows me and cares about me.  He also cares about my sweet babies.  I want our home to be a sanctuary -- a place where the Spirit can dwell.  A place that is safe from the awful things of the world.  In order to create that, I know the words we speak must be peaceful.  Kind.  Loving.  I am always trying to improve myself, and this is an area I need to work on.  I'm grateful that the Lord knows my heart and answers prayers, both spoken and unspoken.  I'm grateful He helped me put together a short lesson to help our family learn how to communicate more kindly, more gently, and more lovingly.

So here is the recipe for the treat :).  These things are melt-in-your-mouth delicious, by the way.  My lame amateur pictures don't do the cookies justice.

 The original recipe can be found here.  I pretty much followed it completely, except I used a silicone baking mat.

4 egg whites at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

Beat egg whites in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until frothy. (If using a freestanding mixer, use wire whisk attachment.) Add cream of tartar; beat until soft peaks form. Increase speed to medium-high. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form. Beat in extract. Gently stir in chips, if desired.

Drop by rounded measuring teaspoonfuls about 1 inch apart onto 2 large foil-lined baking sheets sprayed with no stick cooking spray.  (I used a silicone baking mat with cooking spray just in case ;).)

Bake both sheets of meringues at the same time 45 minutes. Turn oven off. Let meringues stand in oven 1 hour or until completely cooled.  (Mine peeled off these silicone mats super easily!)

So, for the lesson, as I mentioned before, we used Elder Holland's talk.  I only quoted one part from it for the lesson (a 2 year old's attention span is very small...).  "So, brothers and sisters, in this long eternal quest to be more like our Savior, may we try to be “perfect” men and women in at least this one way now—by offending not in word, or more positively put, by speaking with a new tongue, the tongue of angels. Our words, like our deeds, should be filled with faith and hope and charity, the three great Christian imperatives so desperately needed in the world today.... please know that your Father in Heaven loves you and so does His Only Begotten Son. When They speak to you—and They will—it will not be in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but it will be with a voice still and small, a voice tender and kind. It will be with the tongue of angels."  We also used a scripture from the Book of James:  “For in many things we offend all... if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” (James 3:2) since that is one of the scripture references in the talk.

Then we had a little lesson in which I had written words and phrases on little strips of paper.  We helped our 2 year old decide whether those were "happy" or "sad" words or phrases and she got to tape them up on the wall under the appropriate face.

I used more "happy" than "sad" because I think we should focus more on the good.  They are still hanging on our wall so we can refer to them from time to time.

I included phrases that our 2 year old has heard us use that have obviously made her happy, because she repeats them to us inquiringly sometimes so that we'll affirm them.  These include "special girl" and "best friend."  I am grateful that, in spite of some of our hard times, she still knows that she is my "special girl" and my "best friend."  She loves to hear me tell her that it's true.  And I'll tell her forever.  Because it's true :).