Dear Santa,

My poor-pitiful-me-self wants many things this year for Christmas. To summarize, I'd just like what seems like everything we own to stop breaking down.

A car, a van, a microwave, a crockpot, a toaster oven...and more. That's all. It seems so simple after all. No more wondering where the money is going to come from and/or deciding if we can actually replace said items. And, Santa, it's really not fun to have all those things break down in a matter of a 2 month time span. Seriously. And, if you can't make everything stop breaking down then many dollar bills would be very nice.

I'm really quite stressed at the moment. So if your elves could just make all of this stop, I'd be grateful.

Then, my sensible-stop-being-selfish-and-think-of-others-self realizes these problems aren't really problems. Just inconveniences and money-sucking things.

There are people hurting. Hurting from depression, missing a child, a child lost to death, a husband or wife who left, cancer and illness, death of a loved one...

There are young children and adults in our country and many other countries who are sold into slavery through human trafficking. People in the world who do not have clean drinking water, or a place to call their very own.

The list of human needs could go on and on. And here I am in my warm house, typing on my own computer getting sucked into all the material things when material things are just that...things.

What I really want for Christmas, Santa, is for you and your elves to join me in praying to our Lord to help us all to realize what a really problem looks like and how we can be His vessels at home and around the world.