Selfishness Turns Into Self Pity

When I was 17 years old I remember one one morning my mother told our whole family that she was going to make our favorite meal for lunch. This was exciting news to me that morning and I was looking forward to it immediately. I began right away imagining how the food was going to taste like so many other times we had this particular meal. In my mind I could see myself sitting at the table eating and enjoying the food with every savoring bite.
That same morning my father told me he wanted me to go with him to visit some relatives that lived some 50 miles away. I said I would go as long as we could be back in time to eat lunch. He said we probably could if we got going right away. So I went with him. After an hour driving there, and a couple of hours visiting I thought we were ready to go because I wanted to go eat that special meal. Just about the time my father was ready to leave someone else he hadn't seen in along time arrived. Of course, my father wanted to stay and visit, but I wanted to leave. The longer my father visited, the angrier I became because I wanted to hurry home to start eating lunch. After another hour my father was finally ready to leave. So now we were on our way back my anger starting subsiding. When we arrived home it was about 2:30 pm and I was ready to eat this special meal. I told my mother I was ready to eat and she told me that I had to wait until supper time now, which was usually around 7:00 pm. I couldn't believe it, now I had to wait another four and half hours to get to eat this meal. I was disappointed and even angrier than before. I stomped off to my bedroom laid on my bed and cried while feeling so sorry for myself I couldn't hardly stand it. At the time I didn't realize how selfish I was being, I was to busy feeling sorry for myself. Poor me, I didn't get to eat the special meal when my brothers and sisters got to eat it already. And on top of that I didn't get to eat any lunch. Why did I have to go visit relatives with my father anyway. This whole day just sucks. Poor me. Here I was 17 years old acting like I was three, angry about something so silly as one meal, and wallowing in self pity that would make anyone sick to their stomach.
But how many of times have all of us been selfish and wanting our own way over smaller or larger stuff than the story above. The more selfish we are and the longer we try to force our way on others the more self pity we seem to wallow in. When I look back and remember that incident, I am so thankful that I have grown up or matured since then. I am now more equipped with the word of God and can recognize selfishness and self pity more quickly than back in those days. Paul said it best in 1st Corintians 13:11, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
One of the best ways to get over selfishness, is to get busy doing things for others. When you life is involved with other people's well being, you have less time to be self-centered. Another way is to love others as Jesus loved us. When you love others you will do things for them even if it means doing without yourself. John 15:12 - 13 says, "This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." We lay down our lives in many ways for our family, friends, co-workers and total strangers. We put aside activities we want to do and do something for someone else, we sacrifice time, money, food, and most anything else when we love. When you truely love you are less selfish and less likely to fall into self pity. Truely loving yourself is the best way to get over self pity.