life is so unfair

Portrait of my oldest son 12"x16" Acrylic

The other day, just after parent-teacher conferences we were talking, my second oldest son had just had an exceptional parent teacher conference, after getting poor grades all year last year, he was now getting almost perfect grades. Last year when we had a similar report at parent teacher conference with our oldest son we stopped and bought him a T-shirt from his school as a spur of the moment reward. When all of my second sons teachers praised him so abundantly (one even cried) I thought I'd better buy him a T-shirt too, just to be fair, but they were not selling any shirts that night. I told my second son that I wanted to get him a shirt, but instead of a shirt I would spend an extra $10 on the scriptures that I was getting him anyway and make it a nicer book. My older son overheard this and started whining, about how unfair I was being, he had already been complaining about how we wouldn't buy him a laptop and how we expect him to do chores on his day off from school. It made me so angry. When my oldest was that age I got him new scriptures and a t-shirt, the t-shirt cost more than the extra $10 I was going to spend on his brother.

When I calmed down some I firmly told my oldest that if he goes around comparing what he has to what other people have he is always going to be unhappy. There will always be someone who is better looking, richer, has nicer parents, is more talented than him and if he looks for life to be fair he will be forever disappointed, bitter and angry. The trick is to be grateful for what you do have that is what really makes you happy.

I sat there fuming and suddenly I wondered if God ever feels that way toward me when I am asking for more or complaining about what I don't have. Do I ever make him that angry at my selfishness and ingratitude?