The Trouble with Entitlement

ID-10018236

Had a bit of an epiphany last night about entitlement. Specifically, the trouble with entitlement and what it leads too. This post is about human beings. The government issues are for different writers out their in the blogosphere.

The trouble with entitlement is it connects directly with a nasty habit called taking things for granted.

In my world, I often hear family and friends decry taking things for granted. Most of the motivation for this comes from all of us getting the unexpected/shocking news of someone dying or someone losing something valuable. The list includes family, friends, health, and much more. You know the old saying around you don’t know what you have until its gone.

I believe taking things for granted has an evil twin, and his name is entitlement. Entitlement is a deadly trap on multiple fronts. The biggest relates to a since that I’m owed something. For example, I was downloading an update to some software last week. In that process, there was a failure. I had to start over. I caught myself saying something like, “this is not supposed to happen, I don’t have time to wait on this.” Humanly speaking, we’ve all been in that situation. The ugly truth is I felt entitled to technology working the way I wanted. So the story goes.

Our words may not utter what is really going on inside, but we do walk around with this idea that:

  • “I’m supposed to have smart, successful children.”
  • “I’m supposed to have a spouse who will not cheat.”
  • “I’m supposed to have health that doesn’t fail.”
  • “I’m supposed to have a career that lasts forever.”
  • “You’re supposed to be there when I need you.”

I’m sure you could add to the above. The truth is we’re not entitled to much. Most of what we have (Life) are gifts. Seems to me, thankfulness should overrule our attitude of entitlement. Imagine what impact that would have on our wellbeing.

Our Children

Ksdlw35t 006

I've been thinking a lot about our children lately, specifically my own. I've spent much time wondering what the world will look like when they're (Lord willing) adults and how I can help prepare them.

The following are some thoughts:

  1. I need to pour into them wisdom about handling money and power. Looking around me it's clear this is not taught in the university or the business arena. I think we know what happens when people don't know how to handle these beasts.
  2. I can't depend on the current education system to provide significant support. I often think our education system is teaching in a form appropriate for 30 years ago.
  3. Our government (America in this case) is content to make it difficult (massive debt)for my children to prosper economically. I don't want my government to help my children with their careers, but I do want them to manage with excellence the resources given and to get out of the way.
  4. I need to, on an exhausting and repetitive basis, remind them that they are unique and should live life accordingly.
  5. I need to teach them the value of loving God and loving other people (regardless of who they may be).
  6. I need to model everything I teach every day, every day.
  7. I need to encourage them to be risk-takers.