Times of trouble concentrate the mind wonderfully and often help us to see what is truly important in life. When things are relatively calm, pettiness rears its head. Pettiness means we focus on trivial things that are not really important and act as though they are really significant. It seems to me, especially on social media, that we are very good at focussing on the petty and not very good at discerning what is truly important.
I have known arguments over things like the colour of curtains and feuds which have lasted decades over things which were really unimportant. We live in a society which enjoys being outraged and which takes offence at the least little thing. Such attitudes are not worthy of God’s children. He shows us what is really important in life (‘to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’ (Micah 6:8)), and these are the things which need to engage our attention and time.
So let go of pettiness and concentrate on the big things in life!
