All I want for Christmas is some steely resolve please

It is becoming quite evident that it is "that time of year again"... Although "that time of year" has commercially arrived since before Halloween and I am already feeling Christmased out.

Never fear - I am not going to wax poetic about the real meaning of Christmas.

If i had to make out a Christmas list this is how it would go:

1. Uncle Sam would take less out of my paycheck next year

2. My car, Samson would definitely take on its namesake (FOR GOODNESS GRACIOUS SAKES ALREADY) and start behaving like a real car that doesn't leak, sputter or generally make the gutteral sounds of an old man. Samson, please for once ... be good to me.


3. I could devise a genius way to make some extra bucks without exhausting myself


4. I would learn how to knit so I would never have to make my way to the mall again and buy overpriced stuff that no one wants anyway.


5. Blossoming within me, would be some good old fashioned, unadulterated steely resolve to keep me going forward. A double portion of however much the Lord is doling out to everyone else. I need me some steely resolve... with a capital S.










I am thinking #5 is something that is slowly emerging...maybe. The other night, I was praying out loud, and one of the things that popped out of my mouth was "Lord, let my face be like flint, unmoved to what I feel is happening in my life - and remember You."

Okay, it wasn't that eloquent, but it was along those lines.... I got interested in this word flint, and looked it up. It comes up in Isaiah 50: "For the LORD God helps Me, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.... who is among you that fears the Lord, that walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on His God...."