thank God for irritations

As I sit here on my computer, carrying on a conversation through facebook as well as an important conversation through texts on my phone, I am being distracted by a fly. Not a little, quick-flying fly.  No.  One of those large, slow-moving, LOUD flies, constantly buzzing by my head.  He's not content to find a windowsill and just hang out.  No, my hair is a much better place.  In place of a fly swatter, we have a small electric tennis racket.  Well, it looks like a tennis racket, but when the button is being pushed and it is making that low humming sound, you really don't want to touch it.  When we actually catch a fly with it (smashing it up against the windowsill), it makes the fly snap with electricity, followed shortly by the scent of burning hair.  (Who knew that electrified flies smelled like burning hair?!)  Well, this electrified tennis racket is not getting this fly.  So I sit at my computer, holding the racket in the air, hoping the low hum will keep the fly frightened enough to stay away.  I make a very humorous picture right now.

All this is leading up to a very valuable lesson, I promise.

A while back, after my daughter got a mosquito bite, I was able to answer her question (spoken with frustration) of "Why did God create mosquitoes?  What good are they?"  I can't remember where I heard this answer, but it did manage to stick with me and after that conversation, with her also.  Here was my answer:

I think God created mosquitoes (and flies) to be annoying on purpose.  You see, they are just a little bit irritating.  A small little annoyance that we can learn to put up with.  I think He gives us those small annoyances to help us handle the bigger ones that will happen to us one day.  Flies and mosquitoes help us build tolerance for large annoying and irritating things.

(Now here I will make sure that I take note for those of you who are allergic to mosquito bites.  That is quite nasty and more than just a little annoying.  In my family, however, it is just a small irritation).

So the next time we were in the truck and a fly got stuck inside flying back and forth in front of me while I was concentrating on the road, I told the kids to open their windows so the stinkin' thing would find its way outside.  My girl pipes up from the back: "I know why God created flies - so that we can learn how to deal with irritating stuff!"

I love it when kids get it.

KC