"I can't wait to see her face!"
I heard this phrase not too long ago.
The story: A family's young daughter has recently been diagnosed with cancer. A group of people - seemingly kindhearted people - took it upon themselves to do a fundraiser for this family. Along with this fundraiser, the group paid to have a banner made with the girl's photo on it, and name. It's a lovely banner. The plan is all group members will sign the banner and present it to the family.
And then someone made the comment "I can't wait to see her face" talking about the mother of the child.
This wasn't a selfless act being done by this group of people. It was an act they were doing to get recognition from the family and from the community. It is a good deed brought about by selfish motives.
"Oh look what I did for this hurting family. I'm such a wonderful person. They'll love me so much!" Does this sound like a selfless act? And yet time and again this is the way we act when we do good deeds. This is why we do good deeds - to be admired and recognized and loved and appreciated.
"Watch out! Don't do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven." (Matthew 6:1)
Somehow, I don't think there would even be 5% the amount of good deeds if that were the case. But, that brings up a question... does it really matter the motivation, so long as good deeds are being done? Would it be better to have just a few good deeds with good motivations... or several good deeds with selfish motives?
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