by Kim Wiezycki

You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry, you'd better not pout and I'm about to tell you why! Most of us want to be good people. We want our kids to be good people. It is the Christmas season, a time of year when most people are inspired to do good deeds. So…what exactly is goodness? 

God says, “The fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” Galatians 5:22 tells us that if we have the Spirit in us, goodness will be demonstrated in our actions and that is “acceptable unto the Lord.” Jesus says in Luke 6:45, “a good man with good treasure brings forth that which is good.”

So what does “being good” look like?  Simply put, good is the opposite of evil.  According to the Daniel Webster dictionary of 1828: Goodness is the state of being good, having the physical qualities which constitute value, excellence, or perfection, moral qualities of a Christian virtue, kindness, benevolence, charity, humanity exercised, mercy, gratitude.

God gives us many examples in the Bible of what He considers to be evil, and the list is long! Destructive words, ignoring a person in need, physically harming another, lying, corruption, stealing, pride, arrogance, cursing, idol worship, just to name a few.

Then I read examples that God uses to show us what goodness looks like. The Bible tells us of people who spoke kind words which had the power to give life, or of a woman who gave a servant a glass of water and then went above and beyond and offered water to his camels, or the demonstration of a man helping a stranger (even an enemy!) in need, and many people humble enough to give credit to another, or praising God when they felt just the opposite.

In my daily walk with God, I have noticed that He will point out to me those ways in which I can do something He considers to be good. Every moment is an opportunity to say a kind word, give a hug, be a good listener, give a gift, spend time with someone who is lonely, share abundance, offer gifts and talents humbly, or forgive someone who has wronged me.  God says these actions are good, and when we do them, we know in our hearts that they are indeed.

Be encouraged by the fact that we can never be “good enough” to earn our way to Heaven and yet God loves us anyway!  We will not always do the good thing and we will fall short daily! He provided a way through the sacrifice of His perfect son in our place. Yet, He has equipped us with ways to show goodness during our lives on earth, which blesses Him tremendously. And that… is good.

Kim has been married to Larry Wiezycki for 16 years and they have two boys, ages 9 and 11. When Kim isn't in church, she can be found teaching curly girls how to take care of their hair, spending way too much time on Facebook or reading real books, and running a 5k here and there.