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Set Your Face Like Flint

Set Your Face Like Flint

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Set Your Face Like Flint--water lapping against rocksDo you occasionally face tasks that seem impossible? Yet, you refuse to quit? Instead, you set your face like flint and finish the job before you?

Flint is a hard, dark rock.

It was often used in earlier times to make tools and start fires. Flint also makes strong stone walls.

To set your face like flint means to be determined.

When you face difficulties, you refuse to give up. Instead, you:

  • Focus on the task before you.
  • Dedicate yourself to its completion.

The prophet Isaiah described the Messiah, Jesus, as having “set my face like flint.”

Isaiah tells of Jesus’ determination to complete the role of a suffering servant. Jesus sacrificed His life on a cross to make eternal life possible for all who accept His gift.

You can follow Jesus’ example.

Life gets hard. Many tasks are tough. However, with God’s help, you can endure. You can keep on keeping on. You can also make a positive difference in an often negative world.

“Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame” (Isaiah 50:7 NIV).

Thanks to Linda Russell for the suggestion. Image by Wesley Rocha from Pixabay

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Cut and Dried

Cut and Dried

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Cut and Dried--bunches of dried flowersI love to go outside to look at flowers. A stop to smell the roses refreshes my body and mind. I rarely cut them to bring inside. They wilt and die too quickly. However, I do decorate with cut and dried flowers.

Dried flowers remind me to find beauty following tough times. They also match my love for a vintage look. Most of all, I appreciate their lasting value. They bring smiles for years rather than days.

Cut and dried means unchanging.

Like cut and dried flowers, a situation remains the same over time. It is:

  • Decided
  • Settled
  • Clear
  • Definite

This description can refer to plans or solutions to problems.

Cut and dried can also mean dull or boring.

A situation is:

  • Uninteresting
  • Common
  • Routine

Writers and speakers never want to appear cut and dried.

Not everything cut and dried is dull or boring.

Many plans, solutions, and presentations never change. Yet they challenge and inspire. Like dried flowers, they endure.

For example, a man asked Jesus for the greatest commandment. Jesus said to love God and love others. His response, in a nutshell, was clear and unchanging. It was not boring then. It is not boring now.

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘… Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31 NIV).

Thanks to Joe Klotz for the suggestion. Image by Richgold from Pixabay.

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