"How are you?"
"Good, I guess."
"That's good."
How many times have we held a conversation similar to this one? We shrug it off, not bothering to even consider life before answering "good." How many times have we not seen the true goodness of our life because we didn't bother to look up? Didn't bother to look around. Didn't thank God for His will and grace.
More often than not, when we really think about it, life is good, and I don't mean little man with a fishing pole good. I mean soul-saturating, life-giving good that can give us much joy- if we let it.
It's time that we learned how to view life as good and to let this goodness change our day just a bit. Goodbye pity-parties and complaining tweets, we've got something better to do with our time.
Here are six ways to embrace the goodness of life:
1. Cease complaining
Do we want to live happier? Then perhaps we should stop talking about all of the things that we don't like. What would happen if we resisted the urge to always look at the negative side of things? What would our conversations sound like if we were intentional about not complaining?
"Do everything without complaining and arguing." (Philippians 2:14)
2. Be thankful
Thanksgiving isn't a holiday, it is a lifestyle. It is a way of living that gives thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Try keeping a journal where you list three things you are thankful for every day. When we start thinking about it, we have more good things to be thankful for than we thought.
3. Smile
I dislike turning in ballet. It scares me, stumps me, and stresses me out, probably because I'm not very good at it. I practiced my turns one day and decided to try a new strategy; I tried smiling while I turned.
Guess what? It helped. When I smiled instead of tensing in concentration, my whole attitude lightened up.
Don't forget the power of a little smile.
4. Pray
What better way to live in the goodness of life than to talk to the God who created it? Prayer reorients us around what is true and noble and right and beautiful (Philippians 4:8), namely God. Prayer connects us to the One who makes life good. Prayer continually teaches our souls to rejoice (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17).
Prayer also pops our pity-parties, which cloud our ability to see goodness. When we come before God, our pride gets humbled and we are forced to look up and see that God is good and His ways (not our ways) are best.
5. Be where you are
We have this idea of what happiness should look like, and it for sure isn't what we see in our lives. We think that being good means having everything go our way, so when things aren't perfect, we lose a bit of that pep in our step.
What if, though, we learned contentment and joy wherever we are in life? What if we can give thanks and smile even when we don't get the desired grade and we don't have a date for Valentine's Day? What if we found goodness where we are instead of where we want to be?
6. Help others along the way
Part of finding goodness is sharing it with others. I find that the most encouraging thing is to give encouragement unto others. When we invest into helping others have a good day, our day gets a bit brighter as well!
Next time someone asks you how you are, I hope and pray that you will be able to answer "good," not just because that's your automatic answer or what you think you should say. I hope that you say "good" because you are good and have a greater awareness of the goodness in your life through Christ.
