A Reminder to Share Your Goodness with Others
RIGHT, WRONG, AND GOODNESS
It would be nice if we had an experienced committee that could vote on our important choices and give us guidance on “which way to go.” Life would be easier, and we would make fewer mistakes. But, unfortunately, life management doesn’t work that way. We can seek counsel from those we trust, but our choices are ultimately ours to make. However, there is a “test” that we can utilize that will help us determine…is this choice right or wrong for me?
Things Are Changing. One of the challenges you and I have is that a lot of things have changed over the years and not necessarily for the better. As examples, there was a time when marijuana was illegal nationwide…today you can purchase it in almost every state. In the good old days, we received a few pieces of correspondence by mail each week…today, we receive dozens of texts every day, many of which contain bad words or poor ideas. Years ago, we trusted our news sources to be unbiased…today, we have to select our “favorite” based on whether they spin things in a liberal, conservative, or some other direction.
More Pressure to Decide What Is Right. In other words, society has “advanced” and created lots of personal influences that didn’t exist years ago. There are, therefore, more pressures on you and me to decide what is right and what is wrong. Bottom line, good choices are getting harder and harder to make.
Applying the Goodness Test. Therefore, it would be helpful if we had a way to preliminarily test or evaluate a pending choice…some way to categorize it as being potentially a good or a poor one. We have defined goodness in the lessons in our library as something that we do that helps another person in some way…the key word being helps. So, we suggest that you apply this “goodness test” to any important choice you are trying to make…will this choice help someone in some way? Will it help me, help my family, help a friend, or, for that matter, help the world in some way?
Be Guided by Your Answer. If your answer to this goodness test is yes, you can be assured that you are heading in a good direction. If the answer is no—or definitely not!—then stop and rethink what you are about to say or do. Obviously, you can‘t apply such a test to every choice you make. But the more important ones can benefit greatly from this determination. One simple question...will this choice be helpful to someone…or not?