Pet Peeves

Everyone has them. Pet peeves are those things that have grown to annoy the snot out of you. Snot might be one of your pet peeves. For others it may be: flushing for someone who didn’t do the courtesy ahead of you, waiting in line at the store, biting nails, bad grammar, etc.

 

I have two primary pet peeves that drive me nuts:

 

1.  People who eat with their mouth open. For goodness sake, I don’t want to see your dinner…let alone hear how it sounds as you chomp-chomp-chomp.

 

2.  Complainers. It almost seems like an oxymoron to be a Cranky Christians. I have one word for whiners. And everybody says, WHAA! Let’s call 911 for the Whaa-ambulence! Do you want a Whaamburger with those French Cries? And the classic, do you want some cheese with that whine?

 

It may seem like I am bitter about people who complain (or interpret the facts as them see them). I am not. The other day I received a compliment from an ol’ lady at the church who said, “You are nice young man.” Usually, I would ignore such a comment, but this day I was proud to wear the badge of niceness.

 

This reminded me of a quote I had just read again from C.S. Lewis who said,

 

“…if you are a poor creature—poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels, nagged day in and day out by an inferiority complex that makes you snap at your best friends—do not despair. He (God) knows all about it. You are one of the poor whom He has blessed. He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive. Keep on. Do what you can. One day (perhaps in another world, but perhaps far sooner than that) He will fling it upon the scrap-heap and give you a new one. And then you may astonish us all—not least yourself: for you have learned your driving in a hard school. (Some of the last will be first and some of the first will be last).” (215, Mere Christianity; Nice People or new Men)