what is "boasting"

Jesus said,in matthew 5:14-16
"14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

then in matthew He says, in matthew 6:1-6

"6 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

a lot of people tend to only think of the later verses, that anything not done in private by a christian is "boasting" or disobeying Jesus' teachings in the verses from chapter 6. This isn't true, as we see in chapter five, Jesus says to not hide our light under a bushel, most people know the children's gospel song "let it shine" so what does He mean by saying these things? well in chapter 5 He gives a specific reason as to why would should let our light shine before men, "that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." then, in chapter 6, we see that he says this "that they may have glory of men."

so what He is saying is, if you are living for God and doing something for someone else to help others, if in the situation it will cause people to Glorify God, or be a testimony to someone, that is not boasting, that is "letting your light shine" ...BUT if you only do it so that others will see you and if you are just doing it to impress others and make them think you are "good" then it's wrong. It kind of could be said that it comes down to intentions, and I've heard people say that it was all God, or something to the effect of letting people know that they want God to get the Glory, and that's good. And people can sometimes tell which one a person is doing, but sometimes they can't. But God always knows what intentions you have. And me personally, it makes me very uncomfortable when people tell others about their giving to charity or things like that, but that's just me. And I was thinking about candles and why Jesus used that as an example of us and I realized, for one, candles light a room but they don't talk, they don't say "look at the light I am providing for this room" they just simply do it. and candles can't light themselves, I think it's interesting that He used those as an example, christians are the candle but someone has to light the candle for it to shine, God lights us, it's not our fire, or light, it's Gods :)