Resolute!

I have married a resolute woman.

Mind you, resolute was not the first word that came to mind when I wrote that sentence. Pig-headed headed my list of choices. Then I toned it down to stubborn; but that sounds too critical. So I tried persevering. Then I resolved to use resolute to describe my beautiful, charming (but pig-headed) wife.

Remember how she took me Christmas shopping on the day after Thanksgiving? She’d determined that she wanted to buy a certain trinket as a present for her brother Eric, and his wife..

The stores had sold out of said trinket.

But Ginny wanted that present. None other would do. And, once she sets her mind to a goal… Remember how the Terminator robot in that movie locked into his mission and would not be deterred even if a bus hit him?

My diary posting for Saturday, January 5^th, 2008, (see blog archives in the sidebar) records how two weeks after Christmas Ginny was still shopping for that specific trinket. Yes, two weeks after Christmas!

Well, guess what we did yesterday?

Again, we went Christmas shopping for Eric and Dot’s present.

She got it!

She got it!

She finally got it!

Determined. Resolute. Preserving. Stubborn. Steadfast. Pig-headed — whatever term you care to use, Ginny got it.

Resolute!

The words of an old hymn come to my mind:

I am resolved to follow Jesus.
I am resolved to follow Jesus.
I am resolved to follow Jesus.
No turning back. No turning back.

Sometimes that kind of resolved is what it takes.

Once some people who followed Jesus for a while, gave up. John’s Gospel says, they “went back and walked no more with Him.

“Then said Jesus unto the twelve, ‘Will ye also go away?’

“Then Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God’”.

Resolute.

Be resolute. Whatever the difficulties, whatever the obstacles, whatever the discouragement.

I must be resolute.

That’s the way to go.

In the evening, Ginny and I enjoyed a long talk about the state of our marriage. While we stay more or less on target, we plan some course adjustments to make living together a bit easier. While a Terminator-like inexorable resolution is good overall, some flexibility helps a marriage flow smoother.

And speaking of a smooth marriage, another plumber comes to our house tomorrow.

With our daughter Eve’s wedding next Saturday and with wedding guests coming in from all over the country — from South Florida on the Gulf Coast to Michigan on the Canadian border, from California on the Pacific to Maryland on the Atlantic, about 50 friends, family and well-wishers plan to attend — it might be nice to have our single bathroom in working order.

Oh, by the way, Merry Christmas to Eric and Dot.