Pet Peeves

Good morning, Five Minute Families! It is great to be with you today despite all the cancellations and revisions as of late. Do last-minute cancellations get under your skin? What about the sound of a scraping fork? Someone drumming on the table or humming the same tune on repeat? Ah, my friends, pet peeves. We’ve all got them, but some of us are better at controlling our responses to our pet peeve triggers than others. Mine is noise… random noises, repetitive noises, loud noises, white noises… you name it. Noises irritate me. There are times when I politely ask the family member who is tap-tap-tapping away to please stop, and there are times when I lose my witness demanding they stop. Often, a person’s response to his or her pet peeve can move that reaction from being merely irritating to being sinful. Likewise, while most pet peeve behaviors are not sinful ones, they could be. For example, in our family, one of our younger sons who likes making a beat will intentionally make a louder, longer, more repetitive beat when a certain older brother is around because he knows how much he can annoy and control his brother’s outbursts. THIS is sinful behavior. It actually did not start that way, but as the older brother got angrier and began to scare his little brother with his frustrated responses, the original behavior became an anxiety response, Then, as little brother grew older, he realized how much control he wielded simply by pushing that pet peeve button. The whole cycle became sinful. Another example would be when two people begin to be frustrated about a pet peeve and instead of dealing with the problem-causing behavior, the two begin to be vengeful or vindictive. Quietly stewing or intentionally getting back at the person who triggers you is sinful. So, what do we do when someone we love is pushing our buttons with a pet peeve: Be aware of your personal warning signs. Are you in a bad mood? Have other people intentionally bothered you today? Don’t go home and start yelling at everyone for living their liv