Saint Makers 

   Have you ever worked with someone that you simply could not come to like?  Maybe they chewed gum loudly or had an irritating way of speaking or other personal traits that seemed to grate on your every nerve.  Or maybe a relative; the obnoxious one with the vile temper or the nosy one who thinks they must know everything about everyone.  These people might be your saint makers.

   A saint maker is someone that God may have put in your life to help you grow in acceptance of others, even though you struggle to even be around them.  They may be one of the crosses we are to bear in life.

   Rather than try to avoid them or ignore them, we should try to accept them as they are, even though we may never come to like them.  Loving our neighbor doesn’t mean we will always like them.  It means we still wish them good things and the blessings of God, that we remember they are children of God, no matter what a bother they may be to us.

   The thing to remember about saint makers is that we too may be someone’s saint maker.  If we look deep within ourselves I’m certain that we all have traits or idiosyncrasies that irritate and frustrate others.  Accepting our saint maker may even help us to recognize our own failings and shortcomings, urging us to make some changes in our own life.

   In all aspects of our life there are lessons to be learned.  Those who we simply cannot come to like can teach us that the love of God includes all, even those who drive us nuts at times.