I have a Pet Peeve! I know you are probably sitting there thinking, this nice lady that writes this column could never get upset with anyone. NOT! In fact if you ask my family they could probably give you a list of things that they would say I have a pet peeve about. 

A Pet Peeve is defined as “something that a particular person finds especially annoying.” 

Being raised in a minister’s home. My parents were far from perfect as most parents are, but one thing they taught me was to serve others. There wasn’t a home we moved into that, that in the process of discussing who would get what bedroom that my mother didn’t say “We need to plan for a guest room”  

Now I wouldn’t even consider my mom a great hostess because I rarely remember her even having guests over for dinner. But my mom was always ready to host an overnight guest. So much so that we planned our whole lifestyle around it down to how we slept.  Whether it was for a guest speaker coming into town that would be preaching at our church or for family that always lived far away from us, that mom prayed would come and visit but rarely did. 

I remember when we didn’t have an extra bedroom my parents got a trundle bed and put it in my room so there would be room for an extra guest if we needed it. That is just what I was raised with to serve others. 

So in this modern day society where communication is at our fingertips one of my biggest pet peeves is people who say their profession is to serve others but they never respond when you reach out to them. Nothing irritates me more than for me to text  message or call someone and they never reply or take hours or days to do so. 

Some people think God is like that. We pray or ask God for something and then it doesn’t happen they way we thought it would or we think He doesn’t respond and our feelings get hurt. We feel unloved and rejected by God. When the truth is God always answers. Sometimes His answer is Yes, sometimes His answer is no and other times His answers is wait a little while. 

Often times when we don’t get a yes or no answer right away. He is telling us to wait a little while. Waiting doesn’t have to be a waste. It can actually be a projective time of prayer and growing in a deeper relationship with God. It is a perfect time for us to draw closer to Him and we do that by patiently waiting and trusting Him and He works it out. 

In this modern day society where we can have information at our fingertips in seconds we often think we serve a God who should give us what we want and we want it right now. But we forget we serve a God who knows all and sees all, including what the future holds and more importantly we forget that He loves us more than we can even hope or imagine. In fact, His love is so extraordinary that honestly our minds can’t comprehend it because we have never been loved like that. 

We also have to remember God isn’t a genie in a bottle that we just call on when we want our wish to come true. That would actually make us the God. Which is more often what we end up really wanting after all it is our natural tendency to want our way and it is what the whole living by faith has to do with us giving up our well to follow His because He is God. 

Faith is trusting God. I think that brings me back to my pet peeve. I want my way and when I reach out to someone who says their life is serving others and I expect a timely response. Because bottom line they aren’t God and I don’t always know if I trust them, But I can trust the God they serve. 

I’ve had to realize that I can’t change people, but I am responsible for my response to them and in that I have to look to God above to help me be who he wants me to be and just because I believe people who are called to serve others should be available to others in a timely manner doesn’t mean everyone is called to that and I can rest in even though things don’t happen the way I plan them, I just rest and trust in the fact that God said He is working all things together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. Romans 28 

Jeff had just gotten his drivers license and decided he was going to drive down to the corner store and get an ice cream cone. His nephew Trey, who was about 3 or 4 years old at the time was visiting his Mamaw and Papaw so Jeff decided to ask the little fellow if he wanted an ice cream cone too. Trey who was preoccupied as little ones will be, told his Uncle Jeff, No, because as little ones will, he was focused on whatever he was doing at the time and didn’t want to stop doing that. 

So Jeff made his way up to the store and since the ice cream cones were 2 for a dollar Jeff thought “Why not?” and bought two. As he was driving back home he began to eat one of them and walking in the door of his home with two ice cream cones in his hands, Jeff nephew saw them both and asked for one. 

Jeff, thinking he would teach the child a lesson told him “No!” because after all, Jeff had asked him earlier and in Jeff’s mind the child should of said yes then and not waited till he got back home with one. Well, as little ones will. Trey began to cry and as Jeff tried to explain why he wasn’t going to share his ice cream cone with his little nephew. Jeff’s dad hearing his name sake, first born grandchild crying, came in from the other room to investigate the cause. 

When Jeff explained his side of the story, which didn’t hold up very well in grandparent court that day.  Jeff’s dad told Jeff to give Trey one of his ice cream cones. This did not make Jeff happy at all, so he offered Trey the half eaten ice cream cone. To which Jeff’s dad shook his head and said, no give him the uneaten one. This made Jeff even more anger so he slammed the whole ice cream cone down on the table making the cone crumbled and the whole thing landed on it’s side, on the table, which ensued louder and more hysterical crying from the child and a look from Jeff’s father that could kill. 

Jeff’s dad Trammell told him to go to his room where he would deal with him later. Jeff protesting the whole time did as his father asked and walked to his room. Upset at the injustice that had just happened in the room when his 16 yr old self was just trying to teach the spoiled grandchild a lesson. At least that is howJeff saw the situation that day. 

After Jeff’s dad had cooled off, and Trey had calmed down. Trammell came into Jeff’s room. Jeff was fulling expecting his father to give the corporal punishment he was use to in situations like this. In fact, Jeff says he even pondered how many pairs of underwear should he put on, to lesson the blow of the how situation could turn out. You know, kind of pad the consequences per say. 

But this time when Jeff’s down walked in to his room, it was different. He told Jeff who was now as tall as his father and weigh more than Trammell did. “Son, your getting to big for me to whip now, You know what you did is wrong,” Then Jeff’s dad added “ I think the best thing for you to do, is just kneel down here beside the bed and ask God to forgive you” 

Oh! Jeff says at that point all he could think about was he just wished his daddy would spank him! Anything but having to confuse his sin to God. 

Jeff was reminded of a valuable lesson that day James 4:17 says “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, to him it is sin” 

Jeff knew the right thing to do was to share. In his heart he knows the little kid didn’t really have the cognitive abilities to make that decision of not wanting to go with Uncle Jeff to get and ice cream cone, and would always choose an ice cream cone as soon as he saw it. In fact that might of been part of what made Jeff buy 2 ice cream cones that day. 

But the bottom line is, Jeff knew the right thing to do was to share, the right thing to do is to always care for those weaker than ourselves and bless those who can’t help themselves. 

During the holidays, sometimes this can be the hardest thing to do. Often times we might see people who haven’t given us the time of day the other 364 days of the year, but yet all of a sudden want to be friends with you this one day of the year. 

Our natural instinct might be to ignore them or avoid them, after all, one could think “If they don’t care about having anything to do with me the rest of the year, why should I have anything to do with them on this one day?” 

But is that really the right attitude to have? Again, we need to refer to James 4:17 I think this might have been the first verse I ever taught my children “He that knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, to him it is sin”. 

We often know the right thing to do but our want to, is often lacking. Jeff knew he needed to share, but he wanted to make a point to his little nephew and his opinion of what needed to be done, superseded what he knew was right at the time which caused his father to have to bring his attention back to the right thing, and that is what would Jesus do. 

Isn’t Trey a lot like us though, how many times has God called us and wanted to give us a good gift, but because we are to busy doing our own thing, we push Him aside in essence telling Him. No! Only to realize we had made a mistake and we wanted what He had. 

Luckily it is never too late for us to get on our knees and ask God to forgive us and tell Him we want what He has offered us. God isn’t as petty as we are and although we may reject Him all year long He is always waiting with outstretched arms to welcome us home. He loves us and wants to forgive us of anything we have done. 

But just like the scene around the table at Jeff’s parent’s home. Our life can be chaos until we decide to do what we know is right to do. 

God’s word says “If we will confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9. It is only when we confess and decide to walk in God’s will that He will walk with us and help us in the chaotic times of life. 

When our kids were little our Christmas tradition was for Jeff to wake up our children in a Santa Clause suit. It was one my mother made for Jeff when our oldest was just about 3 yrs old. So until all three of our kids went to college, this was the routine on Christmas morning.

Santa would go from room to room, waking the kids up, then like the pid piper, we would all follow him down the hall to the living room where we would all gather around the tree for Santa to read the real Christmas Story out of the bible, we would then sing Happy Birthday to Jesus usually around some sort of cake with a candle. Then Santa would hand out the gifts and leave, shortly after Jeff would come into the room and tell the kids, rubbing his eyes as if he had just woke up saying “Why are you all making all this noise you woke me up!” 

Because of this happening we never had to have “the talk” with our kids about who Santa really was. Our kids just figured it out, that Daddy is Santa. 

Amy must have been about 7-8 yrs old when she came to me one day and said “Okay mom!, I know who Santa Clause is and I know who the Easter Bunny is, But who is the tooth fairy?” When I just gave her that look that said “Hello!, It’s the same person silly” To which she responded in shock “You mean Daddy” To which all I could picture in my mind at that very moment was what it would of been like, if my husband had asked my mother to make him a tooth fairy costume instead of a Santa Clause suit. The image of my 6’3” 300 pound husband in a pink tutu, sneaking into the kids room at night to retrieve the tooth under their pillow,  flashed before my eyes and I just blurted out “And you should see him in his Pink Tutu”  

You know, in this life there will be a lot of things we don’t understand. Life rarely happens as we plan it, but it is the mature Christian who, in whatever circumstance they are in and says “I trust you Lord!” 

Proverbs 3:5 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” 

Part of submitting our lives to Christ is realizing that we don’t always understand why things happen nor will we always like what happens in this life. But the truth is, whether we choose to submit our life to Christ or not. There will always be something that happens in this life, we don’t like or understand. The question is “What will we do when those times come?”

Will we react like a 2 year old who doesn’t get her way, by throwing ourselves on the floor and kicking and stomping our feet or will we realize that in this life hard times will come, bad things happen and when we feel overwhelmed and frustrated and yes, even mad. We can lean on Christ, Trusting Him. Because He also tells us in Romans 8:28 it tells us “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Did you know we all have a purpose? God designed every one of us with a purpose and a plan for our life and the first plan He has for all of us. The one thing God is more concerned about more than anything else is our character. He is less concerned about our comfort and more concerned about our character. He so desires a relationship with us, that He will do whatever it takes to pursue us so we will acknowledge His existence. 

Maybe you’re like Amy was,  and you just don’t understand everything that has happened and where it all comes from. Maybe you have been looking for some mystical character to come and rescue you from all your problems. But the truth is there is no magical character that is going to take away all your problems. Christ even told us in His word, “In this world, you will have troubles, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16)

Just like my kids looked forward to Santa waking them up each Christmas morning, We need to look to our Heavenly Father when troubles come and bad things happen we need to run to our Heavenly Father and know that we may not understand now what is going on. But we can trust that nothing that happens to us, has not already when through the hands of the heavenly Father and He is prepared for whatever comes our way, He will find a way to bring good out of bad if we will keep focused on Him. 

Just like when Peter stepped out of the boat on to the water, as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. He was walking on water, but when he started focusing on the storm and the waves around Him. It was then He begin to sink. When we keep our eyes on the Father, nothing is impossible. We can defy all odds of what the world says will happen. But the choice is up to us. 

Will you focus on what you don’t have, or didn’t get? Will you be negative and depressed on this most joyous of seasons? This is the day we celebrate the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords! This is the day we honor the son of God who gave up His home in Heaven to come to earth because man had done the unthinkable and separated himself from God by choosing to do what He wanted instead of following the plan God had laid out when He created him. 

That battle goes on today… We can choose to live our life for ourselves and how we think it is best, or we can choose to follow the creator of the universe and trust Him.