Fruit -GOODNESS

Goodness is the quality of being good. As believers we are commanded to set the example of goodness to others. This is a genuine state of goodness in a person's life.

Think about goodness......what comes to my mind is when we were kids we were always told to "be good". When my mom would have to work and we went to the babysitter, "be good" she would tell us. (I'm sure she meant that more for my brother than me. Haha.) When my own kids were small, my husband and I were on some committees at our church at the same time. My pastor's wife would babysit them while we were at the meetings. My husband would tell them, "be good". My kids would go camping a lot with my parents. We always told them, "be good". Did they always listen? Of course they did (insert sarcasm here :), but sometimes they did not. We are all human and we can hear something all the time and understand, but at the same time become immune to words and voices. It gets to a point where kids say, "I will be good", without thinking about what you said. Parents want well behaved kids. Kids want to make their parents proud of them. It's a never ending circle. I have grown kids now and still want to make my parents proud of me. So, it never goes away.

Goodness in this sense is a trait given by the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that....No one does good, not even one. This is found in Romans 3:11-12. This same quote is found in Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1-3. These verses are telling us that we can be as good as we want to be and try our hardest, but when it comes down to it, our hearts are still deceitful and goodness is not a natural quality we possess as humans. We can not ever be good in the godly sense and please a holy God with our goodness unless we have the Holy Spirit working in our lives. If being good was a natural way to live, we wouldn't need reminders constantly to do so. We wouldn't have to tell our kids to be good when they are away from us.....we wouldn't need prisons.....or get called to the principal's office......or get pulled into the boss's office......we would just be good all the time and the world would be better. But, this is not reality. We can be good, but a state of goodness is only found in our God and this quality of goodness will manifest itself by the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. Thank God we have Him to show us how to live!!