The Right Thing For the Wrong Reason

[graciesings]

One of the things I struggle with is doing good things just because God wants me to, God has told me to, or because He has created me and I should pursue excellence.

I tend to do what I feel like at the moment without caring what it is.

But lately, I’ve changed a lot, out of necessity (my life has changed a lot and I have adapted.) But now I find that I’m not much better off. Now, I’m really caught in doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.

I study because I’m smart and want to show off, so I can get better grades than my classmates, so my parents will be proud of me, so everyone else will be impressed, etc. I dress this way because it’s different, because it makes my cousins uncomfortable to see someone dress “holier than they do,” and because I’m fat so I don’t look good in stylish clothing. I’m reading Christian books so that I can show the other people in the group what those books really mean, so that I can quote them and sound smart, so that I can show other Christians what kind of books they ought to be reading, and so that my parents will be more impressed with what I read than the science fiction my brother likes.

It seems like I’m doing everything for fun, for praise, because it makes sense, because it hurts others, or because it gets what I want. I’ve completely lost the idea of being excellent for the Lord’s sake.

This issue has only come up over the last few weeks, but it’s a problem that has already taken over corners of my life. I am struggling to switch to doing the right things for the right reasons.

Help! How do you remind yourself to do things for God’s glory? How do you handle it when that’s a struggle? What’s a good way to switch from this to doing the right thing for the right reason? Any resources that might help me?

God bless you,
Grace

 

[hakop]

Jesus taught this. “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”
God highly favors those who have humility. Humility is in the bible quite a few times as being a virtue necessary for a life of godliness. Satan was cast out of heaven for his self-pride. Something you unfortunately have too much of.
Learn from the Lord, be meek and humble of heart, pray to the Lord to make your heart like his.
“Sacred heart of jesus, make my heart like unto thine.”
Practice humility, pray for it. Get rid of your false pride. One should not boast in material things, it is vanity. Cast down your vain imaginations(2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
The way of godliness does not rely on impressing and showing off to other men and living to please them, but in living to please your Father, who abhors such traits such as vanity, self-conceit,pride in appearance and not in faith in God. Boast only in the things of God. It’s all in the bible. You’re living to impress the wrong people. It will lead you down a incorrect path. Go down the narrow path, not the wide path that everyone goes down. For the wide path everyone follows and goes down leads to damnation.
“Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby.” (Matthew 7:13)

 

[SecretCatholic]

Even doing things for the right reasons has its rewards. That is, it is healthier for your soul (if not your body) and then there’s heaven and even pleasing God. In other words, even if you do things because they are right, that in itself is a reward. It would not be rewarding in any way if it were not right, although often wrong things are more rewarding in the short-run (right things are more rewarding in the long-run.)

Respectfully- I think your problem is maturity. We all struggle with it. Most of humanity is rather immature. Even hard working, generally honest people can be really petty. It’s just something most of us have to work on. Remind yourself often that doing the right thing is more important than what others think. Pray.

You feel guilt because you know its wrong, petty. You’re on the right path. Try turning that guilt into interior action, humility. But above all, remember that God sees that your trying and God is love. This is your cross. Bear it well!

 

[graciesings]

Even doing things for the right reasons has its rewards. That is, it is healthier for your soul (if not your body) and then there’s heaven and even pleasing God. In other words, even if you do things because they are right, that in itself is a reward. It would not be rewarding in any way if it were not right, although often wrong things are more rewarding in the short-run (right things are more rewarding in the long-run.)

Respectfully- I think your problem is maturity. We all struggle with it. Most of humanity is rather immature. Even hard working, generally honest people can be really petty. It’s just something most of us have to work on. Remind yourself often that doing the right thing is more important than what others think. Pray.

You feel guilt because you know its wrong, petty. You’re on the right path. Try turning that guilt into interior action, humility. But above all, remember that God sees that your trying and God is love. This is your cross. Bear it well!

Thank you for your post.

You’re right about the maturity issue. I’m only 17, so I’m not very mature in that sense, and I’ve only been a Christian for barely 2 years so I’m not very mature spiritually either.

 

[yellow8yellowM]

Even doing things for the right reasons has its rewards. That is, it is healthier for your soul (if not your body) and then there’s heaven and even pleasing God. In other words, even if you do things because they are right, that in itself is a reward. It would not be rewarding in any way if it were not right, although often wrong things are more rewarding in the short-run (right things are more rewarding in the long-run.)

Respectfully- I think your problem is maturity. We all struggle with it. Most of humanity is rather immature. Even hard working, generally honest people can be really petty. It’s just something most of us have to work on. Remind yourself often that doing the right thing is more important than what others think. Pray.

You feel guilt because you know its wrong, petty. You’re on the right path. Try turning that guilt into interior action, humility. But above all, remember that God sees that your trying and God is love. This is your cross. Bear it well!

I second all this.

 

[yellow8yellowM]

One of the things I struggle with is doing good things just because God wants me to, God has told me to, or because He has created me and I should pursue excellence.

Continue to do what is right in every decision you make–this is of the utmost importance.

When you study, there is always going to be some vanity and some pride involved. The key is that when you notice your pride and notice your vanity that you intend for them to go away and do something about it. Because you posted this, this is already in your intention and you are on the right track. So what do you do about it?

I think one solution is to pray before and after studying. Ask for your pride an vanity to be taken away and to be able to study the give glory to God. You can do this for everything, including how you dress and what books you read.