Some days, does it feel like everything and everyone around you is annoying? Noises rapping at your brain, a loud TV, ringing and pinging phones, bothersome emails, or background conversations?

Today’s that day for me, so I opened my concordance (at the back of my Bible) to look up the word “annoy”. Well close, I found “annoyance”. Here’s a word of wisdom I found in Proverbs 12:16. “A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult” (NIV). The Message Bible words it this way, “Fools have short fuses and explode all too quickly; the prudent quietly shrug off insults.”

Okay, so I guess I’ll do a lot of shrugging off and overlooking today. I think I’ll imagine an umbrella over me for protection. I will choose to not let those annoyances agitate, bother, disturb, exasperate, gall, irk, peeve, or perturb me. (LOL! The ever-handy Thesaurus.com.) Just let ‘em roll off! I’m moving on to the task at hand and ignoring . . . whatever-it-is.

I guess it comes back to focus, which reminds me of Colossians 3:2. “Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.” “Things above” does not include annoyances. “Things above” makes me think of God’s peace, His patience with me, His overlooking and forgiving the annoying things I do. Ah, refocusing is good!

Philippians 4:8 has a beautiful summary. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”