Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Acts vs. Intentions

"The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention."

5 comments:

  1. Thank you for your Kindness :)
    I dropped in to let you know that you can join the LDS Power Bloggers Group @ Linked in anytime!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been enjoying your blog, especially how beautifully you presented the quotes from General Conference, but I don't really agree with this one. I think what you meant was, intending to help someone and never actually doing it isn't a help to them at all, but I think it could give people who are genuinely trying the wrong idea. When we try our best, our intentions are *all* that matter to Heavenly Father and he and the Atonement make up the difference, right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Calise:) I always love it when people have an opinion about a quote given:). You are right, when we try our very best, and we're not able to accomplish what we had hoped, God will judge us (and bless us) by the thoughts and intentions of our heart. But sometimes our commitment to those intentions are lacking. Two things came to mind, one was James 1:22 'But be doers of the word, and not hearers only' and Elder Rasband's talk from General Conference, where he said: "If you come upon a person who is drowning, would you ask if he needs help, or would it be better to just jump in and save him from the deepening waters – the offer whilst well-meaning and often given 'let me know if I can help?' is really no help at all." Ultimately we each know if we are *really* trying to make our good intention happen, or whether if it's just wishful thinking. In cases like you said, where we try *best* to make it happen, I'm sure God will smile upon us for that and will bless us accordingly. So basically what I'm saying is that I think both points of view are right:)

      Delete
    2. as a person who is always full of good intentions, but rarely follows through I completely love this quote because it reminds me that I just need to DO something, not just THINK about doing something or just PLAN to do something. I let grand intentions get in the way and think that if I can't follow through on all of it I can't do any of it. I don't think God wants me to just mean to do good, but He wants me to actually do something and it doesn't have to be a big something. The power of the quote comes from the juxtaposition of "small act" vs "grandest intention" - DOING something, anything is better than making all kinds of grand plans that never get followed through on.

      Delete

Hope you have a brilliant day!!

Welcome! Feel free to share anything on here, but if sharing please link back to the blog post & 'Spiritually Speaking Printable' images are free for personal use, with no commercial purposes, as they are COPYRIGHTED and may NOT be altered without my written permission. xx