MountainWings       A MountainWings Moment

#9313              Wings Over The Mountains of Life

Gnats 2
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A response to Gnats http://www.mountainwings.com/past/3093.htm

The definition of a “gnat” just might depend on who you are, who
you surround yourself with, and where you live. If you are
British, it’s not uncommon to refer to mosquitoes as gnats. In
America, gnats, midges, biting midges, black flies, sand flies,
fungus gnats, punkies, and black flies are all referred to as
gnats.

A common definition of the word gnat however, is “any of various
small, biting, two-winged flies.” The order Diptera and
suborder Nematocera also apply to gnats. Any insect with two
wings that bites, is a fly, is small, and fits in both the
Diptera and Nematocera orders would be considered a gnat.

Gnats are fascinating creatures. They have a life span of only
two to four months. In that time, gnats can lay up to three
hundred eggs. If gnats are constantly hovering around your
home, they are more than likely laying eggs.

To get rid of gnats, you cut off their food supply. You put
fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator or plastic containers,
instead of leaving them out on the table or counter. You have
to make sure that you keep your indoor plants damp, but never
over-watered soaking wet, and that they have a place to drain
where the water doesn’t “pool.” Keep your trash cans clean,
don’t allow food to sit in them, and don’t leave dirty dishes in
the sink over a long period of time.

Fill a jar with vinegar, and poke holes in the lid. Gnats like
the scent of vinegar and they will go into the jar. I wonder
how many “gnats” I have swatted at that were not actually gnats.

I don’t count the wings on a bug or ask a bug whether it bites
before I swat at it, instead, I just swat at it, assuming it
should die only because it flew into my home, when it did so
only because I left the door open in the first place.

I have often referred to a common house fly as a “gnat” simply
because it was a nuisance, in my home or in my way. Common
houseflies don’t bite so this was mislabeling on my part, but I
think, myself, like many people have come to label anything
annoying as a “gnat.”

I have heard it said, in the business world “marketers are
gnats,” “lawyers are gnats,” and other such catch phrases. We
often categorize people before we meet them. We often label
people based on our perception of who we think they should be,
based on the category of people they belong to. This often
occurs because of what we know. We hear about someone being
dishonest, a lawyer, a marketer, a person at church, and we
label everyone in their profession as dishonest.

We hear about someone in the church performing inappropriate
acts, and we label the entire church as corrupt. We have a
negative experience in one church and we think that every church
will result in the same negative experience so we stay away from
church altogether. We are quick to assume that people are like
everyone else in their career, their city, their country, and
sometimes even their world.

I’ve seen it happen in the best of situations “everyone in your
family is so happy” might be a comment you’ve heard, when two
minutes before company arrived, you guys were yelling and
screaming at each other because the house wasn’t just so.

I’ve also heard it happen in the worst of situations “they are
so poor” when hurricane Katrina hit about the people in New
Orleans, not everyone in New Orleans was poor.

We make assumptions based on things we see, we hear, we
understand, and sometimes on things we couldn’t possibly
understand. Two seem to be a common number in annoyances.

Annoying people can be leading double lives, be two-faced, have
two personalities. Annoying insects such as mosquitoes, gnats,
flies, and bees all have two wings. Why the number two when it
comes to annoyances? I am not sure exactly. My theory is that
it takes two to become annoyed. Someone or some thing has to do
the annoying thing, and someone or some thing has to be annoyed
as a result.

In the case of the insects gnats, they don’t know they are being
annoying. They are simply flying around, minding their own
business. They are natural swarmers; they are used to circling,
and if they choose to circle around you, then that’s their
choice.

You have a choice to make as well; you can choose to be annoyed
by them and waste lots of time and energy swatting at them, or
you can choose to ignore them. So it is with people who are
annoying. They often don’t know that the tone of their voice,
the frequency of their words, the tales they tell, the stories
they tell from way back when, their sermons that run three
hours, and all of the little things that they do that you don’t
like are annoying.

You have the same choice with insect gnats as you do with people
gnats. You can choose to ignore the annoyances and seek out the
good in people, or you can choose to dwell on the annoyances.
I have had this happen in my own life.

“You talk too loud!” I have often been told by a member of my
own family. I talk in my natural voice, which sometimes
elevates when I get excited. I show emotion through my voice; I
always have. To some, it’s an annoyance; to me, when speaking
in public, it’s a benefit because I can propel my voice into a
crowd and still be heard. I’m often an effective speaker
because of my voice. To me, the annoyance that some people see
is a positive. So it is with life. What some might find
annoying “the weather is too cold,” others might find a positive
“at least it’s not hot.”

We choose what to make of each situation in life. We can seek
out the good and create a positive out of any situation, or we
can seek out the negative and create an annoyance out of any
situation. God could treat us the same way. He could seek out
the annoying things we do in life, or He could seek out the
positive things we do in life.

He could choose to never forgive us, or He could choose to
forgive us. I’m ecstatic that God chooses to see the positive
in us and that He chooses to forgive us, despite our annoyances.
So the next time you are faced with a gnat of the insect kind,
the human kind, or any other kind, ask yourself “Is this a
positive or an annoyance.”

If you always answer annoyance, maybe you are too easily
annoyed.

~A MountainWings Original by Sarah Hearn, San Diego, CA~

GNATS > http://www.mountainwings.com/past/3093.htm

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