From the desk of Grace Lange,
What is your biggest pet peeve?
Recently I got to thinking… where do pet peeves come from?
Why do we let these little things annoy us so much?
Now before I let you in on why I think we have pet peeves, let me tell you a bit about mine.
Okay… I know this is going to sound crazy…
But one of my biggest pet peeves has to do with summer sausage.
Like the meat you buy to put on sandwiches or eat with cheese and crackers.
While it is one of my favorite snacks, it is also my boyfriend Sam’s favorite snack too. While I am glad he is choosing a semi-healthier snack to eat, what I am not happy about is what he does with the outside wrapping when he is finished eating.
Now if you’ve had summer sausage before, you know that there is an outside wrapping on it that cannot be eaten and needs to be thrown away.
Well… Sam doesn’t seem to know how to throw the wrapping away when he is done and leaves it sitting on the counter ALL DAY.
And if I don’t come over and throw it away, it may sit there for longer.
I DON’T UNDERSTAND!
This bad habit of his drives me absolutely crazy, but recently I was wondering why I get so angry when he does this. Why do I let this little thing get under my skin so badly?
Then I got to thinking…
We are in complete control of our emotions, and we let ourselves get angry over little things.
But why?
Now I don’t really have an answer to why we let these little pet peeves get to us, but what I do know is that we don’t have to let them get to us.
What if we didn’t see these things as annoyances? What if we changed our mindset around what drives us crazy?
After all, we are completely in control of our emotions, so when we let our pet peeves make us angry, we are not hurting anyone but ourselves.
When we get angry, we are simply making life harder for ourselves and truthfully, it doesn’t really affect the people around us…
Why don’t we make our own lives easier and let these little things roll off our backs?
I recently listened to this video by one of my favorite priests, Father Mike Schmitz, who explains this perfectly, so take a listen:
So, the next time you feel yourself getting annoyed, you have 4 options of how you can react, and it up to you on what you will choose:
- Give in to it: You could let this thing overcome you and make you so annoyed.
- Rise Above It: Exercise mercy, patience, compassion with those around you.
- Do Something About It: Let it move you to positive action
- Reframe Annoyance To Sanctification
The next time you feel annoyed, how will you react?