And what is goodness?

51 times goodness is used in the King James Version.

Old and New Testament, references of Goodness generally
talks about the goodness of God. The idea is that God freely gives mankind good things.

Three New Testament passages talk about the goodness of man: Romans 15:14,   Galatians 5:22,   and Ephesians 5:9.

The latter two say that goodness is a fruit of the Spirit. That is, when we have the Spirit of God, the word of God, in us then goodness is one of the things that will automatically grow in us.

Have you ever experienced God’s goodness on a grand scale.I have when I did my year long trek in Australia -My book “Memoirs of a Mystic”

Have you ever met someone where there is something extra special about the quality of goodness in them?

To those who have this quality, you can tell that it is operating deep down inside of them. They are good down to the very core of their personalities. You can see it and feel it when you get around them

As a result of seeing this God-like goodness deeply ingrained into their personalities, there is an immediate drawing towards them. You feel safe around them because you know you can totally trust them and you know they would never deliberately hurt you.

Children are quick to sense and pick up this quality in people who really have it. These types draw children and adults to them like magnets.

In other words, a truly good person could not even begin to try and use you or manipulate you for his/her own personal gain because he/she is too good to even begin to think along those lines. This is why these kinds of people are so trustworthy, and why so many people are drawn to them - because you feel so safe by just being around them.

We are the only creatures on earth that have the ability to look back over experiences and draw conclusions. We have the ability to sit in a chair when we are old and gray and full of sleep and say, "That was good."

Goodness is like an investment for the future: our own and the future of those we love. Every act of goodness, every act of kindness has an unrealized consequence waiting for us, or for those we surround with goodness.

Each day we are confronted with a choice: to choose goodness or to choose what is not good. Each time we make a decision, small or large, to choose good, we build a home, or a school or a book or a symphony in our lives that can be read in the future, that can be lived in, that can be heard when we are nearly incapable of hearing any longer.

We choose to be good because we believe we are building something: a home, a relationship, a path to heaven.

Without goodness, we do not have a photo album in our hearts to look back upon with joy.

Oh, when we grow old there is sadness for our lost beauty and vigor, sadness for the death of those we loved. But there is also that delight in that sense of longing for that day at the lake when we were in love and the loons laughed their silly laugh and all summer stretched out before us in eternity.

In our old age we have the ability to look back with gratitude, to look back to all that was good and holy in our lives and say, "Amen,"   or   "poor me,"   or   "Well that was a life."

We choose goodness because we know that grief cupped in joy and stillness is the reward at the end of a long day or a long life.

Charlene
www.charlenryan.com