When people, situations, and irritations get under your skin, remember the story of

The Oyster and the Pearl

There once was an oyster, whose story I tell,

Who found that some sand had got into his shell.

It was only a grain, but it gave him great pain.

For oysters have feelings, although they’re so plain.

Now, did he berate the harsh workings of fate

That had brought him to such a deplorable state?

Did he curse at the government, cry for election,

And claim that the sea should have given him protection?

‘No,’ he said to himself as he lay on a shell,

Since I cannot remove it, I shall try to improve it.

Now the years have rolled around, as the years always do,

And he came to his ultimate destiny stew.

And the small grain of sand that had bothered him so

Was a beautiful pearl all richly aglow.

Now the tale has a moral, for isn’t it grand

What an oyster can do with a morsel of sand?

What couldn’t we do If we’d only begin

With some of the things that get under our skin.

Source: http://www.godswork.org/encouragement176.htm