Chad and I have recently had a few conversations about the pervasive attitude in our nation that we deserve whatever we want. It's normal for us to feel like we are entitled to so many things that most people in the history of the world have never had. And because of this, it's easy to fall into the trap of ungratefulness.
I haven't thought much about this until recently, and when Chad has brought it up, it has made a lot of sense to me. In Romania, the many times the phone, internet, heater, and washing machine didn't work, it was no big deal. Because we were in Romania--that's what we expected!
But since being home, I have found myself feeling so bothered when things haven't worked. There were some problems in our apartment complex this week, and so we weren't supposed to use our washing machine for a couple days, and one night our hot water had to be turned off for a little bit. Not a big deal, and yet I felt so inconvenienced! And then one day this week, in the middle of printing off a huge document for school, the printer I was using in the BYU library got jammed and messed up the order of a few pages in the middle of the document. My immediate reaction was to feel super irritated, but I had to tell myself that it was going to be okay and to just calm down.
This is disturbing to me! I think if these things had happened in Romania, my response would have been to let it go and say, "E bine!" I said, "E bine!" all the time in Romania. "E bine" means "It's cool/It's fine/It's good/No problem/Etc." in Romanian. I miss saying it, and I think I want to start saying "It's good" as often here as I said "E bine" while I was in Romania. I was so easy-going with malfunctioning things in Romania, and I want to have that same attitude here. I was so good at being inconvenienced in Romania, and I want to continue to strengthen and develop this attribute in America.
I don't want to be an ungrateful American. I want to always be grateful for my washing machine, hot water heater, and BYU printers, rather than feeling so irritated when they are temporarily malfunctioning. For the rest of my life, I want to battle the temptation to feel entitled to or deserving of whatever I want.
4 comments:
Very good point. We in America could learn to do without. I catch myself thinking, still in the Christmas present buying mode, "I want this or that, I should go buy it." It isn't good on the budget and that stresses me out. I need to remember that things don't make me happy, but being overbudget can definitely make me stressed. It just isn't worth it! It feels good to have self control and do without. And be grateful for what you already have!
I agree Abbi! This is an awesome blog! Whenever I make dinner and my kids don't eat I get so irratated because I always think about all the little children all over the world who are starving and would die for a bite of the food I made. It makes me sick sometimes to see how we live and how we want and think we need to have so many things that in the long run, don't really matter. Thanks for sharing this!! :)
Lets get together!!
When you're feeling thankful for something, you handle difficulties differently. I hope I can cultivate that attitude too. Good thinking!
Thanks for the reminder.
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