Over the years, I have prayed, “Lord, show me any areas of pride and teach me humility.” There have been many occasions for the Lord to teach me. This time it resulted from feelings of entitlement.

When we were stationed in Germany, we were permitted to ship one vehicle. In order to solve this problem of living in villages miles away from a post, many couples bought an older car that had been sold over and over to incoming soldiers as others moved back stateside. These cars, “Hoopties,” provided basic transportation, but nothing else.

A few months ago, when my daughter’s car went kaput, I had to give up my 2006 Chrysler Town and Country van with 188,000 miles to drive the hooptie. The reason I refer to it as a hooptie is because it is temperamental. One tire must be pumped up every week because of a slow leak, and sometimes it stalls at long red lights.

Instead of being grateful for a mostly working car, I was resentful and irritable that I had to be inconvenienced. I felt I deserved/ was entitled to something better. Sadly, this was only the tip of the iceberg in realizing how pervasively this American mentality had invaded my thinking. Relinquish and sacrifice are barely part of our vocabulary as we grab everything we can for ourselves and pursue what we want until we have it.

I was glad to have my van back, but I don’t want my old sinful attitude of entitlement back. I want to be as Christ who humbled himself, not grasping to his rights only clinging to the Father.