We often take the privileges and pleasures we enjoy for granted and are quick to grumble and curse. Could we be suffering from a lack of gratitude?
A Lack Of Gratitude?
We don’t get running water at our place. Water is released every third day by the housing complex authorities, and we store it in an underground and an overhead tank. It is sufficient for our needs, and we have no complaints. But due to a larger problem in the city, it’s been five days since we have got water! We’ve had to do without watering the plants and hold back on washing clothes every day. Minor inconveniences, no doubt.
This situation made me think of how much we take for granted and how often we display a lack of gratitude.
This is especially relevant in a country where in some parts, people have to queue up for water once a week and women have to walk miles to carry water back to their homes!
Very often a lack of gratitude flows from a wrong perspective that our lives are not as good as others. This skewed notion will change if we were only to look more empathetically around us and realize that this is simply not true.
A sense of entitlement too keeps us from being grateful and happy with what we have.
There are days when I’ll catch myself grumbling about something so petty that it’s totally not worth any energy! That’s when I try to stop and think about the abundance of all I enjoy and offer thanks for it.


I can relate to the tendency to grumble over insignificant things—slow internet, electrical outages, and heavy traffic. I’m learning to use those times as opportunities to praise God for all that goes right and the blessings he has given me.