“Take for Granted” vs. Gratitude

“Since I helped you shovel your driveway, I just took for granted you’d help me shovel mine.” This expectation of “taking for granted” has become a hallmark of American life. We are gifted in trillions of ways yet seldom make time to express gratitude. Lent might be a good time to be extra grateful and not take others or things for granted.

“Taking for granted” indicates a habitual tendency to fail to appreciate what we have until it is gone. It can be as simple as no hot water flowing from the faucet in the morning or as devastating as a sudden death from a fatal crash. It can be frustrating when the car doesn’t start in the morning or not being able to fall asleep at night. Then we become grateful for the car when it does start and for sleep when it comes immediately.

Counter taking things for granted by developing a sense of mindfulness. We experience lasting joy when we remember to be grateful for small and big stuff — TV that works, a jacket in winter, a friendship, a real letter in the mail, and trillions of stars in the sky. Purposely find persons and events that are ordinary. Ponder them until they become extraordinary: gravity which holds us to the earth; the sun coming up each morning; the complex human body systems working together; the oxygen in the air we breathe.

The tendency to take for granted things and people in life until taken away does not have to exist. To be grateful for what we automatically expect is the mark of a Lenten gratitude program.

Challenge one’s “take for granted” attitude into a “be-attitude.” Become aware of minute blessings that are given daily. In Lent, purposely make the ordinary extraordinary. Life’s daily humbug routines can be a Lenten metamorphosis miracle via hour-by-hour mindful times of gratitude.

Maribeth Theis, OSB