I was in a store a few days ago and heard the familiar whine of a child who wanted something his mom didn't want to buy. She patiently recounted his previous blessings - a day at Disneyland, a new scooter, a sleepover with friends, and a birthday party for 20 little boys! At the end of her little speech, the boy looked at her with a pouting face and said, "Yeah but that wasn't today!"
Not long after that, I was in a coffee shop and a disgruntled wife was complaining about the trip her husband had surprised her with for her 40th birthday. "He spent so much on the hotel that he didn't give me money to shop with, and you know I never like to go to Paris without shopping money!"
The third incident happened just today. I was waiting to put gas in my car and a woman was literally yelling into her phone, berating the caller for buying her a "used" Lexus when she obviously had demanded a new one. She was totally livid that someone else had put 10,000 miles on it before she got it! And to add insult to her injury, it wasn't even the gold one...but a common "tan" that anyone could have..."
The words "You poor thing" wanted to come out of my mouth in the worst way but I was able to keep my lips clamped shut until I was well out of earshot. Since when have we become such a society of whiners? Are we really so entitled to the best that life has to offer that we have convinced ourselves that anything less is unacceptable? Have we accumulated so much that the joy has gone out of our receiving? With the attitudes displayed in these three examples, I can't imagine that the giver is experiencing much joy either!
Gratitude has become a neglected practice. Prosperity has made us indifferent to our blessings and has fostered a raging inferno of always wanting more. Nothing seems to be enough to satisfy the hunger for possessions, status symbols, or "the best". And the sad thing is that when we actually obtain that thing that we have desired, the box is checked off and another desire takes its place. Worldly things will never complete us or bring us the contentment that we are searching so desperately for.
God has given us so many blessings! When was the last time you actually took the time to look at your life and thank Him. So your house needs painting - you have a house and don't have to live on the streets or in your car like so many families these days. Your clothes are crammed in your closet- you're so lucky to have enough, even if some are a few years old. Your car is a gas guzzler - try walking everywhere for a week. Your boss is cranky or demanding - you have a job when so many would love to take your place. I could go on and on. There are so many things that we complain about that can actually be turned around if we would just try looking at them with the eyes of someone who has to do without. Thousands even in our great country are homeless, abused, hungry every day, wearing threadbare clothes, searching for any kind of work to feed their families...
Then there is the opposite side of the gratitude coin...the one who gave the gift. When we are unappreciative or take our blessings for granted, the giver is given the message that the gift was not "acceptable". The more effort & care that was taken to make, choose, or provide the gift, the deeper the hurt when it is not received well. The thrill of giving is the joy in watching the enthusiastic reaction when the gift is received. Monetary value is not the true measure of a thoughtful gift - just ask the wife whose gifts are chosen by her husband's secretary! Some of the most precious gifts I have received have cost little or nothing, but have required lots of thoughtful effort: a poem from a precious friend, or a hand written letter, or something made especially for me; and how about the joy you felt receiving that often-clumsy but darling gift your child brought home from kindergarten! It IS the thought that counts!! And it IS the thought that should be acknowledged!!
If you're reading this and still feel like God has shortchanged you in not giving you anything to be grateful for, take a step back & breathe...look outside at His beautiful world. Use your 5 senses (which you can also thank Him for) and appreciate His goodness to you in those things you see, eat, smell, touch, hear. The myriad of different colors, the sweet sound of music, the taste of your favorite foods, the smells you associate with happy memories, the people that you love and that love you (even though you & they both have faults!)...Wow.
To each of those people in the examples I started with, I would have liked to say, "If you are so unhappy with what you have been given, how about if I take it all back and give it to someone who WILL appreciate it! I'm sure it will be easy to find someone who would just LOVE to receive what you have been given!"
And then we can all Thank God that He doesn't say that to us!!
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