I came across this quotation from St. Augustine, who lived from 350-430. How appropriate it is for our own day.

 

“Is there any affliction now endured by mankind that was not endured by our fathers before us? What sufferings of ours even bear comparison with what we know of their sufferings? And yet you hear people complaining about this present day and age because things were so much better in former times. I wonder what would happen if they could be taken back to the days of their ancestors—would we not still hear them complaining? You may think past ages were good, but it is only because you are not living in them...Just think what those past ages were like! Is there one of us who does not shudder to hear or read of them? Far from justifying complaints about our own time, they teach us how much we have to be thankful for” (St. Augustine).

 

It is easy to complain but so much harder to be grateful. It is easier to be negative but harder to be positive. It is easier to compare one’s situation of difficulty to another’s seeming success, until we step fully into their shoes. There are pluses and minuses in everyone’s life, in every generation, in every era. Be grateful to God that your glass is half full rather than complain that it is half empty.