My homemade cakes haven’t always looked this nice!

Today’s story that is linked up in my Celestial Guide to Family Devotionals ebook is called “Charity and the Cyclops Cake” by Nikki Olson. In this story, we read about the plight of a recently widowed mom who has no running water and the challenge of baking a cake for a Cub Scout event that night. It appeared in the January 2001 Ensign. I remember reading this story over two years ago in the LDS Gospel Library app on my phone for a personal bedtime story one night. (I love doing this, it helps me sleep peacefully to go to sleep with sweet stories about gospel living in my head.) It made me laugh out loud. I thought it was so funny that I shared it via text with my two sisters as soon as I had read it. The reason I thought it was funny was because I had experienced something similar. I too had been asked to make a cake with my son for a Cub Scout event and it turned out disastrous, just like in this story. This was back in the day when I had not yet perfected how to bake yummy real food cakes that didn’t taste as dry as sawdust or as crumbly as dried-out play dough. (The cake pictured above is a gluten free, almond flour free, coconut flour free yellow cake, recipe coming soon!)

I love that the sweet old lady in the story reached out and bought the cake. I love that another woman recognized that the mom could use some encouragement and took time to talk to her. You never know what a conversation with someone can do to lift his or her spirits and give them an idea to help, just like in this story. Moms need other moms to mother them. So, let’s be that encouraging friend! We all need more charity in our lives, right?

If you love this story you will love my collection of monthly stories, songs, poems and scriptures arranged by holiday and seasonal themes in my Celestial Guide to Family Devotionals. Go here, scroll to the bottom, click on the “Buy Now” button and download it for your inspirational pleasure!