Pet Peeves
Weekly devotional by Barbara Sanders

Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

If you have children, I know they've done things that went against the grain of your upbringing. In other words, there were little 'pet peeves' that just got the best of you. It might have been 'the finger twisting of the hair', the blowing of bubbles with every piece of gum, those baggy jeans. It upsets us for our rules to be broken, or completely dismissed. Whatever it was, it would get the best of you each time it happened. I have lots of pet peeves. One of them is someone tailgating and then suddenly pulling around you on a curve or a hill. Another one is when I'm in line at a checkout counter in the mall, and someone finds a way to step in front of me. Perhaps I've been there waiting for awhile; yet, this person thinks nothing of just pushing his/her way in line. Takes lots to keep from saying something! One of the definitions of peeves is 'a grievance'. I had been wondering if the Lord had any pet peeves where His children were concerned. Then I remembered the verse about not grieving the Holy Spirit. To grieve means to 'offend, make sorrowful', and 'affect with sadness'. How many times have we grieved the Lord by not obeying his commands? How many times have we not listened to what He has told us? How many times have we gone on our merry way and let Him out of things? When will we realize that our Heavenly Father is concerned about us, and that He cares about our lives? Like our earthly parents, He wants us to pay attention, and to obey.