The Greek word translated as “goodness” means an “uprightness of heart and life”.
The reality of being indwelt by God Himself and being made more and more into the image of God the Son by the authority of God the Father as God the Spirit bears His fruit within us is truly a phenomenon.
But as He works within us, we are endlessly tempted to distort that work into something we can better understand or quantify.
We make the Spirit’s fruit of Goodness into something moralistic and trite.
And when it comes to raising teenagers, we can spend more time measuring “goodness” and wielding it as a weapon than we do seeing it and savoring it.
We can be tempted to use the goodness not displayed in the ways we imagined as an indictment rather than rejoicing over God’s work within our teenagers.
You see the Spirit’s brand of goodness isn’t “being good”. It is BEING good. Full of goodness.
The “uprightness of heart and life” that the Spirit works within our teenagers (and within us) isn’t a Spiritual Checklist or a set of “Five Steps to More Goodness”.
It isn’t behavioristic and it can’t be diminished to a list of things that “good Christian kids do”.
It is, rather, an outpouring of God’s work within a soul that can’t be perfectly tracked or quantified or measured or even clearly defined or entirely understood.
Because we’re indwelt by Him and are being made into a reflection of Him, we are compelled to behave like He does.
And, He is good.
“Uprightness” isn’t “good behavior”; it is overflowing with the heart of God.
Teenagers often bear this fruit in its most authentic form, not yet distorted by the believer’s temptation to minimize and cheapen it.
They often bear this fruit in the form of small, quiet acts of thoughtfulness and empathy.
They often bear this fruit in the form of pure joy at life’s many pleasures and abundance of beauty.
They often bear this fruit in the form of believing the best of others and being quick to forgive.
We have to see it in this (pure, beautiful) form and choose to savor it.
For more:
@redefininhschool
@rootedinrest
@juiceboxhomeschool
The reality of being indwelt by God Himself and being made more and more into the image of God the Son by the authority of God the Father as God the Spirit bears His fruit within us is truly a phenomenon.
But as He works within us, we are endlessly tempted to distort that work into something we can better understand or quantify.
We make the Spirit’s fruit of Goodness into something moralistic and trite.
And when it comes to raising teenagers, we can spend more time measuring “goodness” and wielding it as a weapon than we do seeing it and savoring it.
We can be tempted to use the goodness not displayed in the ways we imagined as an indictment rather than rejoicing over God’s work within our teenagers.
You see the Spirit’s brand of goodness isn’t “being good”. It is BEING good. Full of goodness.
The “uprightness of heart and life” that the Spirit works within our teenagers (and within us) isn’t a Spiritual Checklist or a set of “Five Steps to More Goodness”.
It isn’t behavioristic and it can’t be diminished to a list of things that “good Christian kids do”.
It is, rather, an outpouring of God’s work within a soul that can’t be perfectly tracked or quantified or measured or even clearly defined or entirely understood.
Because we’re indwelt by Him and are being made into a reflection of Him, we are compelled to behave like He does.
And, He is good.
“Uprightness” isn’t “good behavior”; it is overflowing with the heart of God.
Teenagers often bear this fruit in its most authentic form, not yet distorted by the believer’s temptation to minimize and cheapen it.
They often bear this fruit in the form of small, quiet acts of thoughtfulness and empathy.
They often bear this fruit in the form of pure joy at life’s many pleasures and abundance of beauty.
They often bear this fruit in the form of believing the best of others and being quick to forgive.
We have to see it in this (pure, beautiful) form and choose to savor it.
For more:
@redefininhschool
@rootedinrest
@juiceboxhomeschool
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