Red Tennis Shoes

When I was in sixth grade I was much smaller than my classmates. However, my feet began to grow at an alarming rate. Our family didn’t have a lot of extra money. My grandma from California would go to K-mart at the end of each summer season, buy all of the clearance tennis shoes and sandals in every size and ship them to us in a large box. As our shoes wore out or we progressed in size, we would go to the box in the attic and retrieve what we needed. In the spring of sixth grade, a few weeks before the much-anticipated track and field day for elementary school, I asked Dad if he could help me get the box out of the attic so I could get a larger pair of tennis shoes. He moved the heavy box into the nearby bedroom and called Mom in to help me as I filtered through unable to find a larger size. Mom confirmed I had already taken the largest size the last time my feet had a growth spurt and there was none larger. She apologized and said she would look for some the next time she went to town. Later that day I overheard Mom and Dad talking about the shifts in the household budget necessary to buy me new shoes.  I was immediately appreciative for my new shoes knowing the sacrifice the family would need to make. 

The next week I came home from school one day and Mom said she had found some shoes in my size. She explained that she didn’t have much time or money but she was able to find a pair at the grocery store that should work. She went into her room and brought out a pair of bright red huge tennis shoes. I told her they were WAY too big! At her urging, I tried them on.  My eyes looked downward at my scrawny bruised and scraped up knees and attached to my tiny insufficient ankles were these large bright red tennis shoes. Mom extended her thumb between the end of my shoe and my toes and determined them as a perfect fit. I whispered a near-silent “Thank you…” and turned away to go to the hall mirror. I looked again and wondered “Why did my body have to grow this way? Why was I so scrawny and small except for these hideously large feet of mine? Why couldn’t I be small and cute like my younger sisters or pretty like my older sister?”

With no alternative, I wore my shoes to school the next day. I was teased and mocked. I felt dejected but never told a soul. Instead, I became relentlessly determined to prove to everyone that these red shoes were really fast at our annual track and field day. I cannot recall my times or the places in which I finished, only my resolve to not be defeated by the harsh words of others.

Is this not what I was learning about Christ? He was mocked too.  If He while on the cross, having suffered unimaginable pain and torment was able to plea in prayer, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I was certainly going to be better off for doing the same. So perhaps I was beginning to learn a few things about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Certainly, repentance, forgiveness, and change were all becoming very real concepts to me.

-JC

As I reflect on this experience today, I ask myself:
Do I forgive as Christ forgave?
Do I stand as a defender of Christ?

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cookies

½ cup soft butter
½ cup butter flavored Crisco
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 XL eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
24 Reese’s peanut Butter Cups

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter, Crisco, peanut butter and sugars with an electric mixer on medium-high for 1 minute or until fluffy. 

Hand stir in eggs and vanilla; don’t overmix.

Add dry ingredients all at once and mix until fully incorporated. Add an additional 2 Tablespoons flour for high elevation.

Scoop out approximately 24 2” balls of dough.  Gently roll. For a richer flavor and smoother texture, form cookie dough balls, flatten slightly, and refrigerate or freeze until ready to bake. Place on greased or parchment paper on an aluminum cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

Immediately after you pull them from the oven, leave them on the pan and press a chilled Reese’s peanut butter cup in the center of each one.  

Gently heat 1/3 cup peanut butter in a quart size freezer-strength Ziploc bag. Snip a hole in the corner, and drizzle each cookie with peanut butter.

Next drizzle each cookie with melted Hershey bars (2 of the 1.55 size) in a quart size freezer-strength Ziploc.

Let them set a bit and then remove them from the pans. You can quicken the step of them setting up by placing them in refrigerator or freezer for a bit. Let set. Share!