“There was a little girl, Who had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, She was very good indeed,  But when she was bad, she was horrid.  ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Besides lacking a curl in the middle of my forehead, this poem perfectly describes me as a little girl. I remember my mom reciting it to me when I was naughty, always with love in her eyes and patience in her voice. I tried to be good, I honestly did try. . . I’d wake up in the morning determined to not talk back to my parents, do my chores without being asked, and not pick on my little brothers. But it always seemed the more I tried, the more I failed at being good. 

Sometimes I would give up trying and just allow the horrid to show through. 

Goodness in the world is the same way; sometimes we shine with the light of it, but often it becomes overshadowed by the grime of our horridness. 

Each day is filled with instances of goodness if we seek to find it. I count my blessings because life is good: good friends, good food, good weather, good cattle, good horses, a good dog, good grass, good kids, good movies, good songs, and good strong coffee.

I don’t only look for goodness in the world around me, but I also aspire to find goodness in myself. Knowing that, like kindness, extending goodness to others, making good choices, living with integrity, generally leads to a good life where I can thrive while encouraging others around me to thrive as well. 

I know that “being good” is something that God desires from me, but I also know the reality that being good is hard to maintain. I might be good in some aspects but fail in others. 

Where I see a purity of goodness, a virtue with no wrong motivation or failing, is only in Christ.  I see His goodness all around me. Without Him, there would be no sign of it at all in the world. 

Strongs Concordance defines “goodness” as the desire to do good. It comes from the Greek word, “agathōsynē.”   It’s an intrinsic goodness. Clarke’s Commentary describes it as “the perpetual desire and sincere study, not only to abstain from every appearance of evil, but to do good to the bodies and souls of men to the utmost of our ability. . . a good heart – a heart purified by the Spirit of God.”

Goodness, like kindness, is love in action. It’s seeing where there’s a need, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, and filling it as much as we are able. 

Goodness is love in action, love with its hand to the plow, love with the burden on its back, love following His footsteps, ‘Who went about continually doing good’

Dr. James Hamilton

Love with words alone doesn’t actually love at all; it’s only a sentiment. Real love is demonstrated by putting actions to our words. The Bible tells us, “Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions” (1 John 3:18, NLT). Saying we love others but not showing that love by extending good deeds and service, doesn’t carry a lot of weight. 

Some days it’s challenging to live a life of integrity; it becomes discouraging when goodness in the world around us is lacking. If our eyes are on our circumstances and we react to other people’s ugliness or if we choose selfishness over service, then goodness is far from us.

But we can’t let the horror of the world harden our hearts. We get to choose a different way. 

We get to choose goodness because goodness is a part of the fruit that God’s Spirit works into our lives. 

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” (Romans 12:9 ESV). Goodness is part of what characterizes a Spirit-filled life. We have been given the fruit of goodness, and we hold fast to it as we live in an increasingly evil world. 

We respond to others with kind affection, brotherly love, giving others preference over ourselves.

We continue to fervently serve the Lord as we rejoice in hope, are patient in tribulation, and continue steadfastly in prayer. 

We give help to those in need, show hospitality to others, bless those who curse us, rejoice with those who rejoice, and we weep with those who weep.

We don’t repay evil with evil, and we have a regard for these good things. . .  those things that are intrinsically good, proper, and honest.

We show good behavior around everyone, whether they follow Christ or not. 

As much as we are able, we live peaceably with all men. We treat our enemies with kindness. . . feeding them if they are hungry, giving them a drink if they have a thirst, allowing our goodness to them reveal their shame and evil intent to us. 

We don’t allow evil to overcome us. . . we overcome evil with good!

This sounds good in theory, but how do we practice it in reality? We change our mindsets and pay attention to how we respond vs. how we react. We change where we choose to place our focus. Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.”

If we choose to meditate on the goodness of God, this means we don’t allow the darkness of the world to pull us in. If we fill our minds with the things of God and His character qualities, those things will lead to peace and the ability to extend goodness to a broken and hurting world. 

It can be draining as we try pouring good into a world growing increasingly more horrid and bleak. I fight frustration, discouragement, and anger about how evil often appears to have the upper hand. But God’s Word tells us, “Don’t get tired! Don’t grow weary! Keep on doing good because I promise there will come a time to receive the benefits of goodness if we just don’t lose heart! So take every opportunity to do good!” (Galatians 6:9-10, Jana’s paraphrase).

We might not immediately see the harvest from the seeds of goodness that we plant. Living a life of goodwill towards others with the right heart motivation requires a lot of patience. We might never reap a harvest in our lifetimes, never seeing what those seeds produce. The goodness we give to others might never be returned. 

And yet. . . we have to remember that a harvest does not come immediately after seeds are sown into the ground. It takes time, nurturing, cultivating, watering, and weeding for a seed to grow into something of value and promise. The same is true with goodness. 

As followers of Christ, we continue to plant the seeds of goodness and righteousness into the lives of others. Even when the work is tiring and seemingly endless. . .  even when it becomes grimy and messy. . . even when our knees are tired from kneeling in prayer over lost and hurting souls. . . even when fear threatens to pull us into that very darkness.  EVEN THEN we must not lose heart! 

When the working in of goodness goes unrewarded and unfulfilled, it would be easy to lose heart, but this is when we must remain steadfast and not grow weary. 

We can unswervingly live out the goodness of the Spirit because we know that any good in us is not our own. We know that we’re not naturally good; we have ugliness and sin in our hearts that keep us from being completely righteous.

We might have moments of goodness, moments where we are good people doing good things, but in and of ourselves, without the Holy Spirit working in us, that goodness often has tainted motivations and is a goodness that doesn’t last. 

As hard as this is to grasp – because we do see a lot of good in the world, even good done by people who don’t follow Christ – the bible tells us that NO ONE is good. “As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12 ESV). And, “They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14:1-3 ESV). 

Our natural bent is not for good but for evil and selfish intent. The result of denying God is “corruption and abominable deeds.” This doesn’t mean there is no goodness in humankind; it means that any goodness in us is because God is good. Our natural instincts and inclinations are to do what is best for us. Most often, our good deeds are tinged with selfish motives. We are born with the capacity for evil; no one has to teach a child to have bad behavior, but we do have to teach our children how to behave and make good choices. 

Because the easiest way, the “path of least resistance,” is generally the way that is paved with bad choices, not good ones. Doing good is most often the hardest thing to do. The same is true when encouraging others in their choices; it’s often easier to either ignore or encourage bad behavior because it helps us somehow. The bottom line is that bad can often be the easiest and more attractive choice than good. But in the end, it will always have destructive consequences when that’s the path we choose to go down. 

The words of the song, “Good Good Father,” thrill my soul: 

“You’re a good, good Father

It’s who You are. . . 

And I’m loved by You

It’s who I am,”

If we want to see what true goodness looks like, all we have to do is look at the Father. God is inherently good; it’s WHO He is and part of His character. It’s out of that goodness of His Spirit that He loves us so completely, and it’s what gives us our identity. 

A popular idea right now is that “we are enough.” It sounds great in theory, but it becomes confusing when we don’t understand what “enough” is. Believing that we are enough in and of ourselves will bring confusion and wanting if we don’t understand our true identity. It will leave us feeling exhausted if we believe the lie that we have to be “enough” to earn our way into heaven. 

The truth is that without Jesus, we are not enough. Without Him, we will always be searching for answers and clues about who we are and what our purpose is. With God, we find a good Father and the beautiful truth that we are loved by Him, which makes us who we are.  Because He is perfect in all of His ways, He is enough. And because our identity is in Him, that is what makes us enough. 

The Bible talks about the goodness of God from Old Testament to New Testament. These are just a few of the verses that highlight the goodness of God: 

Psalm 34:8 – “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!” He is good, and experiencing that for ourselves, tasting and seeing the goodness of God, results in integrity in our own lives. 

 Psalm 84:11 – “No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” He desires to pour goodness into our lives! We experience that goodness as we walk in obedience with Him. 

Nahum 1:7 –  “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.” When we choose to trust God, He recognizes that, and we are able to acknowledge His goodness and protection. 

Romans 8:28 – “For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Not everything we encounter will be good, but the greater and more beautiful truth is that God can take every painful and challenging experience in life and use it for good! 

James 1:17 – “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father.” We can’t expect any true goodness to come from our fallen natures or the world. Every good thing we have in life is from God. James precedes this by saying “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren,”; to remind us that Satan’s temptation strategy is to convince us that the pursuit of our corrupt desires will somehow bring good things to our life. But the truth is that Satan only comes to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10). 

This is goodness wrapped up in God with the fruit worked into us by His Spirit. He has planted the seed of goodness into our lives so that we can go out and plant goodness in the world.