Thus far, our complaints about the hardships of life reveal a wrong attitude toward God. The disappointment from which they spring is itself the result of blessings received; for if we had never been blessed, we could never become discontented. Instead of looking back with affection and gratitude, we allow murmuring to intrude; and our quarrel with the present becomes a substitute for thankfulness for the past.

When familiarity with God's mercies tempts us to forget that they are gifts, and leads us to claim them as if they were our right; when we begin to count as blessings only the unusual and unexpected favors of life; when we measure God's goodness only by the overflowings of the cup, and grow angry whenever happiness does not rise to the brim—it is time for our indulged hearts to learn, through sorrow, a gentler spirit. The decay of too much comfort is eating away the very religion of our souls.

We are treating this life as though it were the eternal palace of a god, rather than the brief lodging of a pilgrim. And there would be mercy even in the blow that laid it in ruins and sent us, unsheltered, into the storm, there to seek our rest in a humbler and more dependent spirit.

Martineau