Goodness... is loving kindness in action.

         And it does not come naturally! My dear children and husband, though wonderful gifts they are and though deeply, deeply in love with them I am, will still on occasion feel like a heavy burden or look like the fiery enemy himself just begging to be smacked, rebuked and shunned... but I am called to love them anyway.  Even when I'm tired, hurt or angry, instead of acting on my superficial feelings I can make a choice to grasp firmly onto the truths of God's Word, putting on the love of Christ, and being bathed in goodness!  Taking care of their needs, loving on them and incredibly finding that my feelings, though slightly slower at jumping onto the kindness band-wagon, begin to follow the Spirit's leading and begin to be transformed.  What a gift I can be as a wife, mother and friend, constantly aware of how I can be of help and laying down my life in service to others.  If only we all had a little more of His attitude, maybe we'd all get a little more of that goodness in return. My heart this morning:

So I've found it is not words that win over

nor mere thoughts of kindness.

At our best we still fall entirely short.

When slanderously provoked,

quietly bearing, waiting;

actively returning blessing for evil

seems much too impossible.
Needy gratifying of the flesh ~versus~ a higher calling to do good;
an unseen spiritual tug-of-war ensues.
It IS possible to "do good to those who hate you."

God's readily available supernatural goodness,

actively permeates ever inch of this world.

We have only to deny self, open our hearts

and let him play beautifully through

the instrument that is our life.


"The supreme test of goodness is not in the greater but in the smaller incidents of our character and practice; not what we are when standing in the searchlight of public scrutiny, but when we reach the firelight flicker of our homes; not what we are when some clarion-call rings through the air, summoning us to fight for life and liberty, but our attitude when we are called to sentry-duty in the grey morning, when the watch-fire is burning low."
-F.B. Meyer