Here is a bit of commentary on receiving service and human nature. In thinking on this for the past few months, I have gained understanding and a new perspective on myself, on pride, human nature, serving others and feel I can better understand the reactions of others while being served. Enjoy!
The Four Loves, C. S. Lewis pp.132
"Suppose yourself a man struck down shortly after marriage by an incurable disease which may not kill you for many years; useless, impotent, hideous, disgusting; dependent on your wife's earnings, impoverishing where you hoped to enrich; impaired even in intellect and shaken by gusts of uncontrollable temper, full of unavoidable demands. And suppose your wife's care and pity to be inexhaustible. The man who can take this sweetly, who can receive all and give nothing without resentment, who can abstain even from those tiresome self-deprecations which are really only a demand for petting and reassurance, is doing something which Need-love [one of the four loves which exist] in its merely natural condition could not attain. (No doubt such a wife will also be doing something beyond the reach of a natural Gift-love, but that is not the point at present.) In such a case to receive is harder and perhaps more blessed than to give."
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