“I want a golden goose, and I want it now,” said Veruca Salt from the 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Salt’s demanding character is portrayed negatively in this movie. Yet sadly, many young people carry a sense of entitlement with them through college and beyond.A sense of entitlement hurts students in many areas, including when they are trying to find a job. According to Director of Career Development Hassan Archer, students need to exhibit a willingness to learn. If you look for or begin a job believing you know everything already, you are impossible to work with. If no one can teach you anything, you aren’t going to grow as a person or in your field.When you’re bored or frustrated at work, it’s easy to forget that a job is a privilege. But when you’re actively looking for work, it’s hard to forget that a job is a privilege. You are not entitled to or necessarily guaranteed a job.Additionally, a sense of entitlement can carry over into students’ spiritual lives. We often want God to defend his decisions to us and we do not always require that of people. But even if we did want everyone in our lives to explain why they do things, frustration and despair increase when we cultivate a sense of entitlement with God.”God owes me answers,” we think. “He owes me an explanation for why things are this way and aren’t that way.”It is a widespread mindset that if God does not promise to make our lives flawless, he should “at least” justify his actions to us. Though many may feel otherwise, God doesn’t owe anybody anything–he already gave his son. God doesn’t have to obey our desire, however desperate, for answers.
This is not to discourage honesty with God or to suggest that he does not care what we want. We can (and should) be honest with him about wanting answers, but it’s presumptuous to demand answers, throw temper tantrums, and give up if we don’t get them.
That is childish behavior and a cheap form of love—far from the unconditional love God shows us.It’s hard to know that we don’t know, especially when answers dwell in lofty places far from our hearts. But we have to accept it, to shift our focus from lack of answers to the comfort found in honesty with God. God can’t be manipulated or bent to our wills.
It’s fine to want answers. But to think that God must give us what we want—or else we’ll quit—slaps a nasty, stinging condition on our faithfulness to him.This issue of entitlement is rooted in a lack of gratitude. Instead of believing God, employers, friends, bosses, or life owe you, view everything as something to be thankful for. You aren’t guaranteed anything and once you realize that, everything becomes a privilege. Do not demand that the world give you a golden goose, because you cannot always have a golden goose, and you cannot always have it now.
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Wow! Thank you! In a nutshell you state it well. I’m also finding that more and more coming out of college workers are pulling adolescent stuff on adults. Gossip, bullying, putting words into others mouths to get their own way, not to mention the expressions “I AM THE BEST” “I DESERVE THE BEST”. I’m also finding that what one is entitled to is in the eye of each beholder only. Scary. I’ve never had to watch my back as much as I have in the last two years vs my entire life time in a work place. Sometimes I just want to cry about it. Thank you for speaking up about God :)
God doesn’t owe us anything. He’s already given us life…and the life of his son in lieu of punishment for our sins. And, I can tell you, that in the workplace, a sense of entitlement comes across as having “an attitude.” And employers and co-workers don’t like it. Instead, displaying an attitude of “wanting to learn,” “wanting to please,” and a willingness “to do whatever it takes” will get you much farther in the business world, and in life in general. The author hit “the nail on the head” when she said to practice “the attitude of gratitude.” Not only will you be a much happier person, but you will be much more pleasant to be around. Therefore, you will make more friends and probably get more promotions. Both, in the long run, will be worth much more to you than a “fake golden goose.” :-)