Motives

I went on a ski trip with the Salt and Light group from church not long ago. We went out to Spirit Mountain in Duluth. It was such a good time, I love snowboarding, and it was a great weekend for it. But the highlight for me was definitely our speaker. He was amazing and had such a great way of connecting with us.

One of the days his topic was on motives. He simply asked us what our motives are. If we think about it, we have motives for everything we do... they may be selfish or selfless, obvious or not, or we may not even realize we have motives for something. But every little thing we do has a motive behind it. While I was listening to him I was really thinking about what my motives are. At work? At home? With other families? With friends?

He asked what our motives were for going on the ski trip, and I realized how selfish I am. My motives had nothing to do with getting closer to God, they were simply for myself. To make more friends, go snowboarding, and get away from work for a weekend. As I realized how selfish the ski trip motives were, I realized more about my other motives.

I hate to admit it, but my motives are not in the right place much of the time. I don't want to go into detail about all the ways I need to improve my life, so I won't. But I will tell you this, after that weekend, I will be much more conscience of what my motives are behind my actions.

I want my motives to be selfless, I am blessed in so many ways, so why do I need to be selfish? This has been on my mind since the trip, and even just the week we have been back I have caught myself and had to rethink things. It feels good to catch myself before I act in a selfish way.

I challenge you to think about your motives behind your actions. It can be hard to do, but when you change something about yourself for the better, no matter how small, it is well worth the work.