IT’S ALL GOOD
Psalm 119:68 “You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees.”
There were two basic questions we asked when our kids were young. The first was “Who are they with?” And the second was “What are they learning when they’re with that person?”
What most concerned us about the ‘who are they with’ question was who was influencing our sons and daughters. Were they a good influence. What did they value? Did they use good language and were they careful in how and where they spent their time? Then, we likely wondered about the families of those ‘others’. Were they ‘good’ people?
The second question was one that set our parental sense of responsibility in high gear. We had to ensure that our children learned well! We were all about finding the right school for them. We wanted a ‘good’ school, one that had a good reputation, good teachers, and produced good results. We were all about the ‘good’. Why? Because we wanted our sons and daughters to have the best we could provide and we knew that good was better than just ‘okay’. We had certain criteria and expectations. We didn’t want them learning from ‘just anyone’ and we wanted to ensure the education was solid, worth the investment and would prepare them well for life.
Even though our sons and daughters may be grown, those two concerns- who they are with and what they are learning- are probably still our concerns today.
So we pray. We pray boldly that our sons and daughters will choose to walk with God and learn from Him by spending time in His word.
God is GOOD. Strong’s Concordance defines good in so many beautiful ways: As a noun, the Hebrew word “tob” (1), “good” means: to be good, be pleasing, be joyful, be beneficial, be pleasant, be favorable, be happy, be right, be better or good for, to do good and act rightly.
As an adjective, “tob”(2) covers so many things! To be pleasant and agreeable to the senses, to be excellent, rich in value, appropriate or becoming, glad, understanding, kind and ethical.
Read those definitions again, and ponder them. They’re so rich!! They’re so beautiful. That is our God. And that is the content and character of what He desires us to learn and to become.
Wow! Wouldn’t it be amazing if our sons and daughters could describe their ‘friend list’ with those words!! How incredible would it be if they told us they were learning the goodness of Scripture and incorporating it into their life?!
There is no one better to spend time with or to learn from than God. There is no other who will build our character and teach us integrity. He is GOOD and what He does is GOOD.
Today, let’s pray that our sons and daughters crave the good that God gives and teaches!! And let’s pray that we do as well. He is good and what He does is good, let’s learn his decrees!
Pray without ceasing!
H2895 - ṭôḇ - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (niv). Retrieved from https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h2895/niv/wlc/0-1/
H2896 - ṭôḇ - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (niv). Retrieved from https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h2896/niv/wlc/0-1/