Be Good for Goodness' Sake

When I was very small, my mom would take me and drop me off every morning at Ms. Melba’s Pre-School. Each and every morning before she would give me a kiss and leave me for the day she would get down on my level, look me straight in the eye and with a stern tone to her voice, she would say, “You be good, you hear me?” And I would always respond, “I will.” What did she mean by that? I’m pretty sure she meant, “Act better here than you do at home.” “Be good” meant to act right, to listen to Ms. Melba, and do as I was told so that I would not get in trouble and have to miss Bozo the clown or juice and cookies.

To my knowledge, I was always good. I can never remember being bad enough to get in trouble, and I’m sure I would have remembered because my mom would have beat me half to death when I got home. But here’s the all important question, was I good because I loved my mom and, more than anything, I didn’t want to disappoint her? Or, was I good because I just didn’t want to get in trouble? The answer is perhaps a little of both, but probably the latter more than the former.

Are we seeking goodness for fear of the alternative? Or, are we seeking goodness because we love God so deeply that we want to please Him in everything that we do? Are we seeking goodness because we know where bad people go and we don’t want to go there? Or, are we seeking goodness because, above all else, we desire to be who the Heavenly Father wants us to be? Certainly we should desire to be good considering the alternative. Anyone who knows anything about the reality of hell would never want to go there. But, more than a strong desire not to go to hell, we should have a stronger desire to do good because we love God so much and, as His children, we want to do everything in our power not to disappoint Him. That should be what drives us. That should be what motivates us. That should be why we seek to promote goodness in a world that desperately needs more of it!