TSIYON NEWS

From Eliyahu

Consider this:

 

There seems to be a lot of people these days who have a sense of entitlement - and they can be very annoying. What do I mean by a sense of entitlement? WebMD answers that question this way:

"The entitlement mentality is defined as a sense of deservingness or being owed a favor when little or nothing has been done to deserve special treatment. It’s the “you owe me” attitude."

These are the people who think their time is more valuable than yours, so they just cut in front of you in line. They drive like they are racing in the Daytona 500, just to get 2 seconds in front of you in traffic. In school they complain they are not being treated fairly because they are receiving poor grades - even though they rather spend their time doing absolutely anything instead of studying. You get the idea.

 

Back before the "woke" generation we used to call someone like that a "jerk." Now in wokeworld we may feel we need to avoid being called a "hater" or whatever, so we say such people "have a sense of entitlement" (even though they are still jerks). WebMD seems to think that maybe those folks are entitled to act entitled, because it is not their fault they have that attitude. Its their parent's fault they act that way. At least, I think that is what Web MD is getting at with these words: 

"The environment you’re raised in can affect how you see the world and what you expect from other people."

Here, I have to concede there may be some truth to this, in some cases. For the last few decades there has been a trend to accept disrespect and other bad behavior, with little discipline from parents and others in authority. Undoubtedly this has played a role in creating the sense of entitlement in some young people we see these days. Having said that, I should also say that part of becoming an adult is taking responsibility for one's own actions. That's because the negative consequences for bad behaviors you bring forward into adulthood will fall on YOU - not on your childhood mentors. What these empathy-challenged individuals often seem to miss is the fact that they are not only annoying others - they are constantly bringing troubles on themselves by their boorish behavior. A person should begin to realize it is time for some self-improvement when they see bad results coming into their lives from others in reaction to the attitude they are manifesting.

Here, we do our children - and ourselves - a huge favor when we carefully learn the values we find in the Torah with our family. These are the values that lead to a long and fruitful life. For example, our children will not learn a sense of entitlement from the Torah - they will learn good stewardship instead.

 

What is good stewardship? It is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care. The Torah begins with the fact that we are all given life as a Divine gift. We did nothing to earn it, but we do owe our Creator everything for it. We owe it to Him to use our life as He intends, according to the purpose He had in mind in giving us our being in the first place. Instead of feeling entitled to everything we want for our own pleasure, we need to realize that all we are and all that has been entrusted to us by our Creator is to be used for His good pleasure. As we put His will first in our lives, living according to His ways, we find that every good thing will come to us at the right time, meeting all of our needs. Living in good stewardship of all that is under our control is the best way to live, the right way to live, and the happiest, most fulfilling way that anyone can live. 

 

Being a good steward requires knowledge of what has been entrusted to us, as well as what is required of us in managing that. In other words, what are our responsibilities as a steward of the Creator's things? Its a big world, and there is a lot to take into account in dealing with all of the aspects that stewardship entails. This is the usefulness of the books of the Torah, that teach us how to effectively deal with absolutely everything that we will encounter in life. You may be able to learn some of this through trial and error - but trust me, that's the long, hard, and painful way to learn how to live. Why try to re-invent the wheel? Do it our Father's way, that He has already laid out for us in detail in His Word, and you can avoid all of that pain and wasted years of the trial and error route.

 

Tonight at our online Tsiyon meeting you can get a great taste of what good stewardship entails, as well as the amazing benefits that come to those who put this wisdom into action. This is not pie in the sky we are talking about. This is concrete stuff about the real world that will bless your life as you put this into action. That's tonight, at Tsiyon.Net at 8 PM, CST. We all need this.

 

Blessings and good health to you,

 

Eliyahu
Tsiyon.Org

 

PS - a new episode of Hebraic Insights In The Gospels podcast is posted.
 

PSS - Did you do this yet? Click each of them for more.