Is doing a nice thing still a nice thing? I sometimes wonder whether 'acts of kindness' are really kind if the person performing it is doing it out of a sense of duty instead of love.
One example I could use to illustrate this is apologising. If you apologise to someone and they think you are genuine, but inside you don't mean it, is it a valid apology? Do your intentions affect the meaning of your actions?
I suppose it's a question that I could hypothesise about for days without really coming to a useful conclusion, and I'm not even sure if there is a right answer. Or is it just opinion?
The bible takes two different angles on this. The first refers to a specific example. (I don't know the reference, might be Philippians). It says that even if the bible is preached with ungodly motives (it means like preaching it for our own ends, to make ourselves look and feel better), then the message is still being proclaimed so it doesn't matter! This only applies to God's word bein preached though.
The bible, and this is paraphrasing, also says basically that you should do everything with love, or it is worthful. Essentially, you could raise thousands for charity and do all the good works in the entire world, but if it is all done without a scrap of love then it is worth nothing to God and it is not glorifying to him.
In discussion with a friend today, we concluded that the first thing Sbout the message being preached whatever bit was because Paul was writing at a time when a lot of religiousity and 'my faith is stronger than your faith' existed. Paul was not commending the facts that people preached God through the wrong motives, but claiming that Gods word will shine change and prevail no matter how genuine or proud or otherwise the deliverer be.
Ulimately, I think that motives and intentions can really define a person. It is not so much what we do, but why we are doing it that is written on our hearts.
The most important thing is love. I truly believe that if love is your true motive, then everything else follows.
God bless
Love, Anna :)
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Sunday, 23 January 2011
BEAUTIFUL (and ginger hair)
I have come to the dawning realisation over the last few days, that life is just so beautiful.I have started to see beauty in everything. Everywhere I look I just wow, that's so beautiful!
My God created a beautiful world!
There is a lady at my church who, during worship time, literally just runs about and dances. I was staring her today and was just caught up in how beautiful free expression is. I am actually just looking at things and realising how precious life is.
All my life, I feel like I've taken beauty for granted by trying to attain it. Does that make any sense? I mean, we all try so hard to beautiful (or handsome...). Our lives are practically ruled by trying to make ourselves appear beautiful to others, and the world tells us that as long as other people think we're beautiful, that's all that matters.
Well I believe something different. I believe that God looks at our hearts. That he looks at our hearts and what we've done, what we look like becomes irrelevant. All that matters is how much we loved God, how much we wanted him.
Because our God is beautiful, and I choose to accept that beauty and believe that he made me beautiful too. I'm already beautiful, and nothing I think about myself or do will ever change that.
This has been a very confused blog, and on a different though slightly related subject...I am quite possibly voluntarily dying my hair ginger next weekend! :D Having dared my friend Gilly (she is yet another beautiful thing in my life...) to dye her hair with 'Marron Caca' (look it up :P), she has gone auburn ginger. It is a beautiful colour, just ginger! hahahaha. She has now dared me to do the same. It should go a very different colour to Gilly's because my hair is much darker than hers. Here's hopingggg....:P
SO MUCH LOVE FOR YOU
God bless always,
Love, Anna :)
My God created a beautiful world!
There is a lady at my church who, during worship time, literally just runs about and dances. I was staring her today and was just caught up in how beautiful free expression is. I am actually just looking at things and realising how precious life is.
All my life, I feel like I've taken beauty for granted by trying to attain it. Does that make any sense? I mean, we all try so hard to beautiful (or handsome...). Our lives are practically ruled by trying to make ourselves appear beautiful to others, and the world tells us that as long as other people think we're beautiful, that's all that matters.
Well I believe something different. I believe that God looks at our hearts. That he looks at our hearts and what we've done, what we look like becomes irrelevant. All that matters is how much we loved God, how much we wanted him.
Because our God is beautiful, and I choose to accept that beauty and believe that he made me beautiful too. I'm already beautiful, and nothing I think about myself or do will ever change that.
This has been a very confused blog, and on a different though slightly related subject...I am quite possibly voluntarily dying my hair ginger next weekend! :D Having dared my friend Gilly (she is yet another beautiful thing in my life...) to dye her hair with 'Marron Caca' (look it up :P), she has gone auburn ginger. It is a beautiful colour, just ginger! hahahaha. She has now dared me to do the same. It should go a very different colour to Gilly's because my hair is much darker than hers. Here's hopingggg....:P
SO MUCH LOVE FOR YOU
God bless always,
Love, Anna :)
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Lets Frape Gilly While It's Raining.
I am sorry for my lack of regular blogging lately - I have just been crazy busy.
I just spent a happy half hour fraping my best friend Gilly while she sat oblivious doing her Maths homework. I changed her profile picture, her gender, her interested in, her quotes, her about me, I liked everything on her homepage and I wrote on many people's wall. There is something immature yet very very satisfying about absolutely fraping somebody to the extent that their profile is practically unrecognisable.
Me and my best friends Gilly and Rae had a lovely sleepover last night at Rae's. Because we are nerds, and according to Rae's mum "not proper teenagers", we played Balderdash, 'Snog Marry Best Friend', and Make 'n Break (A very old building boardgame). The highlight was, of course, the inevitable game of Chin that ensued around the dinner table. Chin is similar to Zip Zap Zoom in concept, the only difference being that you say Chin Chiwa and Chihuahua instead and you can't show your teeth. Seriously, try it :D
We had some funny moments in Balderdash discussing Rae's blonde moments. My personal favourite took place when she was on a plane with her mum. Looking out the window, Rae commented "MUM LOOK IT'S SO PRETTY IT'S SNOWING LOOK AT THE SNOWFLAKES". What Rae was actually looking at was the clouds, (AND she was in the South African summertime). CLEVERtimes :P
It is absolutely tipping it down. I adore rain. It just washes everything and it's so liberating to go and jump in massive puddles and get soaked :D It's currently raining the kind of rain that smashes again the roof and the patio and makes little droplet sounds that make you feel like you're camping in the middle of a thunderstorm. The kind of rain that would drench you in 10 seconds. It's stunning!
A new favourite of mine is the show 'Come Fly With Me'. You'll have to watch it, a blog cannot do it justice. It is just hilarious. Along that note, GLEE IS BACK. It was, as predicted brilliant.
I also got my guitar! His name is Egglebert Acorn Hughes and he is beautiful. Before too long, I should have a few cover versions up on YouTube (once my computer has stopped crashing everything I load it D:
Well this has been a very messed up blog.
I have a much more serious one on self-image coming your way soon, need to finish it.
God bless :)
Love, Anna
I just spent a happy half hour fraping my best friend Gilly while she sat oblivious doing her Maths homework. I changed her profile picture, her gender, her interested in, her quotes, her about me, I liked everything on her homepage and I wrote on many people's wall. There is something immature yet very very satisfying about absolutely fraping somebody to the extent that their profile is practically unrecognisable.
Me and my best friends Gilly and Rae had a lovely sleepover last night at Rae's. Because we are nerds, and according to Rae's mum "not proper teenagers", we played Balderdash, 'Snog Marry Best Friend', and Make 'n Break (A very old building boardgame). The highlight was, of course, the inevitable game of Chin that ensued around the dinner table. Chin is similar to Zip Zap Zoom in concept, the only difference being that you say Chin Chiwa and Chihuahua instead and you can't show your teeth. Seriously, try it :D
We had some funny moments in Balderdash discussing Rae's blonde moments. My personal favourite took place when she was on a plane with her mum. Looking out the window, Rae commented "MUM LOOK IT'S SO PRETTY IT'S SNOWING LOOK AT THE SNOWFLAKES". What Rae was actually looking at was the clouds, (AND she was in the South African summertime). CLEVERtimes :P
It is absolutely tipping it down. I adore rain. It just washes everything and it's so liberating to go and jump in massive puddles and get soaked :D It's currently raining the kind of rain that smashes again the roof and the patio and makes little droplet sounds that make you feel like you're camping in the middle of a thunderstorm. The kind of rain that would drench you in 10 seconds. It's stunning!
A new favourite of mine is the show 'Come Fly With Me'. You'll have to watch it, a blog cannot do it justice. It is just hilarious. Along that note, GLEE IS BACK. It was, as predicted brilliant.
I also got my guitar! His name is Egglebert Acorn Hughes and he is beautiful. Before too long, I should have a few cover versions up on YouTube (once my computer has stopped crashing everything I load it D:
Well this has been a very messed up blog.
I have a much more serious one on self-image coming your way soon, need to finish it.
God bless :)
Love, Anna
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
I Am Not Sad Today.
Today is Tuesday the 5th of January and I should be sad. You know why? Because today is the first day of school after a lovely long Christmas holiday where I have indulged in far too many mince pies, torn a ligament in my ankle, played some ridiculous boardgames, not learnt my play-lines or done any work, seen some beautiful Portsmouth-dwelling people, woken up after midday every day and generally had a fantastic time always...
On balance, however, I have decided that I am not going to be sad that all this has come to an end because I have 3 things to look forward to. I hasten to add that as soon as these things are over (Saturday) I will desperately be searching for new things to gear my excitement towards, so if you're planning any exciting events, feel free to invite me :P
These three things are:
1. Tomorrow, I am seeing my best friend Rae because she is home from South Africa. I have had a big Rachael-shaped hole inside me in my epic lacking of her from my life, and it will be lovely to get that hole filled again.
2. On Friday, I am seeing my friend Tess who hasn't been in South Africa, but who I haven't seen since August because we are hopelessly disorganised. Tess is the only friend I have that understands all my jokes, and I therefore cannot wait to have her back in my life.
3. I AM GETTING A GUITAR ON SATURDAY. Need I say more?
I had a surprisingly good day today. We have to do a Russian play for drama. I was mistaken to imagining this meant we had to do Russian accents, and I therefore embarrassed myself with my Indian Russian accent...I did, however, manage to go through a whole hour without my favourite music teacher (!) telling me I was so stupid I should die. I then watched an episode of 'The Big Performance' on BBC. I am in awe of Gareth Malone. He takes these ridiculously shy kids (about 80% of them can barely sing in tune or prefer to speak the words to rhythm) and turns them into pint-size popstars (well, sort-of). My brother wishes he was Gareth Malone, and I have to say I have nothing against this proposal.
I have just though of a fourth thing to look forward to.......drum roolllll.............................
GLEE IS BACK NEXT MONDAY.
For the uninitiated, you have something lacking in your empty empty lives. For the haters, MUSICALS ARE COOL. Glee is a beautiful show about very attractive people that dance and sing in a school showchoir. Sue Sylvester makes the show. But gay Kurt does to. I can't decide who I like more.
Leading on from this, I am obsessed with musicals - uncool, nerdy, geeky as it may be my favourite christmas present was tickets to see 'Blood Brothers'. Heeeyyyy, this can be my 5th thing to look forward to!
I am not sad today, I refuse to be.
God bless :)
Love, Anna
On balance, however, I have decided that I am not going to be sad that all this has come to an end because I have 3 things to look forward to. I hasten to add that as soon as these things are over (Saturday) I will desperately be searching for new things to gear my excitement towards, so if you're planning any exciting events, feel free to invite me :P
These three things are:
1. Tomorrow, I am seeing my best friend Rae because she is home from South Africa. I have had a big Rachael-shaped hole inside me in my epic lacking of her from my life, and it will be lovely to get that hole filled again.
2. On Friday, I am seeing my friend Tess who hasn't been in South Africa, but who I haven't seen since August because we are hopelessly disorganised. Tess is the only friend I have that understands all my jokes, and I therefore cannot wait to have her back in my life.
3. I AM GETTING A GUITAR ON SATURDAY. Need I say more?
I had a surprisingly good day today. We have to do a Russian play for drama. I was mistaken to imagining this meant we had to do Russian accents, and I therefore embarrassed myself with my Indian Russian accent...I did, however, manage to go through a whole hour without my favourite music teacher (!) telling me I was so stupid I should die. I then watched an episode of 'The Big Performance' on BBC. I am in awe of Gareth Malone. He takes these ridiculously shy kids (about 80% of them can barely sing in tune or prefer to speak the words to rhythm) and turns them into pint-size popstars (well, sort-of). My brother wishes he was Gareth Malone, and I have to say I have nothing against this proposal.
I have just though of a fourth thing to look forward to.......drum roolllll.............................
GLEE IS BACK NEXT MONDAY.
For the uninitiated, you have something lacking in your empty empty lives. For the haters, MUSICALS ARE COOL. Glee is a beautiful show about very attractive people that dance and sing in a school showchoir. Sue Sylvester makes the show. But gay Kurt does to. I can't decide who I like more.
Leading on from this, I am obsessed with musicals - uncool, nerdy, geeky as it may be my favourite christmas present was tickets to see 'Blood Brothers'. Heeeyyyy, this can be my 5th thing to look forward to!
I am not sad today, I refuse to be.
God bless :)
Love, Anna
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