My husband is a loud eater. For whatever reason, his cheeks do not muffle the sound of chewing the way most people’s do. I, unfortunately, am hard-wired to be hypersensitive to the sound of people eating.
Normally there’s enough noise in our household at meals that mastication is lost in the tumult, but when I’m stressed my misophonia ratchets up. On top of that, when my husband is stressed he likes to eat peanut butter on toast. Or he munches dry cereal, one piece at a time. It drives me crazy.
We live in a 900-square foot apartment, so there isn’t another part of the house to which I can retreat. Besides, once the crunching starts I can hear it a mile away; it’s the audio version of the princess’ problem with the pea.
Read More: How to Be More Grateful
So what’s the solution? I wish there were a pat answer, like, “Oh, I just pray through it!” or “I asked God to help me and my husband was cured!” Instead of offering a miracle solution, God seems to be offering me the opportunity to effect a transformation of my heart by working this through, myself. Here’s what I’ve learned:
1)
I have to accept the problem for what it is.
I don’t need to blame anyone or anything; to move ahead I can’t obsess over how things “should” be.
2) I need to focus on my piece of it.
My irritation is mine. I have to find ways to manage it well.
3) Regardless of my aggravation level, I must be gracious.
If I need to ask someone to do something differently, I have to do so in a Christian manner.
4) Finding ways to be thankful transforms the problem.
There’s always another perspective. In the case of the crunching companion, I can be thankful that we have food to eat. Also that this is actually only a 10-minute problem a few times a day.
All of these observations apply to other areas of my life as well. That leads me to believe that anything that can drive me nuts can drive me to God. And when it doesn’t, well, there are headphones.
