The Entitlement Trap

Christmas has become the epitome of entitlement thinking:
"My family deserves _______."
"I feel I have earned ______."
"I can't afford this, but my ______ is worth it."
"That will be credit, please."
"But Honey, it was such a good deal I couldn't pass it up!"

The Black Friday shopping is creeping up to the week before Thanksgiving, with the ravenous quest for deals inserting itself in advance of Thanksgiving.  Many stores are open on Thanksgiving day offering pre-Black Friday deals.  Some feel they are entitled to a season of shopping.

I am reading a book by John Townsend called "The Entitlement Cure".  In it he says, 

“Entitlement is the belief that I am exempt from responsibility and I am owed special treatment.” 

“Entitlement is: The man who thinks he is above all the rules. The woman who feels mistreated and                  needs others to make it up to her.” 

Entitlement has us believe that the world owes us something because of who we are.  It is our sense of justice gone rogue in a very selfish way.  It is the avoidance of the Hard Way that leads us to where we are suppose to be.

Here are other's thoughts on the entitlement trap...


“You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.” 
― Abraham Lincoln

“When we replace a sense of service and gratitude with a sense of entitlement and expectation, we quickly see the demise of our relationships, society, and economy.” 
― Steve Maraboli

“Legalism breeds a sense of entitlement that turns us into complainers.” 
― Tullian Tchividjian

“Taking things for granted is a terrible disease. We should all be checking ourselves regularly for signs of it.” 
― Kate Tempest

“There's a whole generation growing up thinking...the government exists to care for them.” 
― Dave Ramsey

“They all want to be happy. They all think they should be happy. And they’re quick to trot out their most cherished document and point to where they were promised “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But you’ll find that though they all parrot that little phrase, they think none too hard about that word “pursuit”. To follow, to chase, to inquire, to hunt, to seek. To track in order to overtake and capture. This they don’t do. Instead, having been offered a promise of happiness, they progress to a feeling of entitlement for happiness, then make the leap that happiness should, therefore, be easily won, automatic. There’s too much wrong in there to even scratch at that!” 
― Geoffrey Wood

Entitlement is dependence, expectation that someone else is responsible for our happiness, provision and status quo.

I wonder what (or who)  in our lives is taken for granted as "our right to have"?