A Prayer About Irritations

When I become increasingly annoyed by people and situations

GOD,

Life seems to be filled with irritations lately. Certain people have irksome mannerisms that get under my skin. I seem to be meeting irritations at every turn: drivers who go too slow or too fast or think they can cut me off because they put on a turn signal or don’t use turn signals at all; clerks or waitstaff who act indifferent or rude or who get the order wrong; people who are late or early, who tell the same joke or story repeatedly, or who talk too loud or too soft or too much or too little; and all those little annoyances such as things that break, don’t work correctly, have strange directions, are too big or too small or too hot or too cold. At times I want to run away because these people and things get to me. Wait—maybe the problem is me, Lord. Please help me take my eyes off myself and my needs and change me from picky to pleasant and from negative to positive . . . and to stop being so irritating myself.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Psalm 139:23-24