I'm reading a fantastic book right now with my best friends called, "Grace for the Good Girl."
I realized that I am a try-hard good girl.
and let me tell you, this book is perfect for me, and it’s message is probably relevant for all you good girls out there.
The author, Emily Freeman, shares her story about growing up good. Going to church, staying away from boys, dreaming of her perfect future marriage and home, serving in church, and making sure everyone knew how good she was.
Oh how we can relate...
We all genuinely want to be good. We want people to think we’re good. We want to look good too. We want goodness to radiate from us, and we feel good when people recognize it.
We want to be the good Christian woman everyone loves. The one that reminds you of that really good chapter...Proverbs 31. We want to be a good wife who can cook good meals for her good husband. We want to be a good mom that takes good care of her good kids. We want to be the good church volunteer who does good things for her good church.
And when people don't think we’re as good as we want them too...we go out and do more good things to change their opinion on us.
What a cycle. And what a waste of time!
What's most funny is how much irony is in this cycle we put ourselves through. The fact that we yearn for so much affirmation, so much recognition, and so much praise is selfishness. And selfishness is definitely not...well... good.
Personally, I’ve prayed so much about this. Talked to God about how hard it is to be good...about how it's so tiring. He brought me to this.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."- Galations 5:22-23 (emphasis added)
Goodness come from the Spirit. What a sweet revelation!
We don't need to try to be good anymore. We don't have to try to impress anyone with our goodness. We need only to set our eyes on Christ and fall into His open arms. Then things of the Spirit and goodness will naturally flow. Not from you...but from His Spirit within you
Let’s let go of radiating our own goodness. Let’s radiate God's goodness to others.
"I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable." Psalms 145:1-3
It's not about us, and it never has been. Striving to be virtuous is well and good, but the bible doesn't tell us to make sure everyone knows how virtuous we are and idolize ourselves. It tells us to extol Christ in our lives and lift him up!
Besides, there is no one that is good beside He... not one. (Romans 3:10)
Wow, Sammie. This is a word for me and is exactly what I needed to read this morning. What an amazing revelation that our goodness is not from ourselves, but it is a gift from God - a fruit of His Spirit.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger, I used to think that the "goodness" fruit was the easy one. It was the fruit that I never felt the need to focus on because well, it always just came naturally to me. I have always been good. But now I see that this goodness is truly about Him alone, not about my reputation, character, or what I can do to gain approval. It is all about Him and how I represent Him as his daughter.
Thank you for sharing this, Sammie. I know that it was from God himself. He is really using you to speak into the hearts and lives of others. Love you! I reading that book TODAY! :)
I can completely relate to this too. I love this blog and I love that book too! Thanks for sharing this, Sammie, it really did speak to me :)
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