Baked-In Goodness

Claire: Welcome to True Girl, a podcast for girls and their moms. Together, we’ll explore God’s truth for us, one drive at a time. Buckle up! You’re about to grow closer to each other and closer to Jesus!

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things.

That’s Galatians 5, verses 22–23. In this season of the True Girl podcast, "A Recipe for a Fruitful Life," Dannah Gresh and Staci Rudolph are serving up all the best ingredients for growing in the fruit of the Spirit!

Today’s topic: goodness. Ever wonder what it takes to live a truly good life? In this episode, Dannah and Staci are talking about how you can let God’s grace shine through your actions and make a lasting impact on others.

Let’s listen and learn as Dannah Gresh and Staci Rudolph talk about it while making a yummy breakfast! Here's Season 15, Episode 7, called “Baked-In Goodness.”

Staci Rudolph: Hey Dannah, what do you think would happen if I gave one of these cranberries to Moose?

Dannah Gresh: Uh, I don’t know. You could try, I guess.

Staci: Hey, Moose! Oh, you’re right there. Here, try this.

Well, he got it in his mouth. Oops, there it is again. I guess he’s not such a fan.

Dannah: Unbelievable. Moosie eats everything. If I give a horse a carrot, he wants one. If I give a goat a banana, he wants one. He even tries to eat the hay when I feed everyone in the winter! But Staci, I think you finally found his match. Cranberries! I mean, they’re pretty sour.

Staci: He may not like them, but these sugared ones sure look good!

Dannah: I thought you were greasing the muffin pans?

Staci: I was. I finished. They’re ready to go.

Dannah: Okay, well, I’m ready for the cranberries now. Hand ’em over. Grab a couple spoons and we can both fill the muffin pan.

Staci: I’m sure looking forward to these! They’ll make the perfect breakfast tomorrow, with some eggs and bacon . . . yum!

Dannah: Yeah. And you know what? I think they’d be really good with an orange drizzle on top!

Staci: Ooh, that sounds delicious. Yes, they will be good for breakfast . . . if they last that long!

Let’s sit on the sofa while it bakes. And now it’s time for . . . the fruit of the Spirit!

Dannah: Of course. Remind me which one we’re on?

Staci: Goodness.

Dannah: Oh, I’m excited to talk about that one after we mentioned it last time.

Staci: Yeah. Last week you said that goodness toward other people means doing what’s best for them.

Dannah: Right. That’s one way to say it. And though goodness isn’t exactly the same thing as kindness, you can’t really separate them. A truly kind person is good to others, and someone who’s good to others is kind.

Staci: That makes sense, but I’m still a little confused about what goodness is. 

Dannah: Let me see if I can explain. It’s hard for me to understand, too. This is where we have to start with God’s goodness, just like we’ve been doing with all the other fruit.

Staci: Yes, the fruit of the Spirit is the result of God’s Spirit in us!

Dannah: Exactly! Did you know that the English word “good” is actually related to the word “God”?

Staci: Wow, really? No, I didn’t know that! But now that you say that, it kinda makes sense. I mean, they’re spelled pretty similarly.

Dannah: Uh-huh. So, the people who were making up the English language understood that God and good go together. God is good. He can’t not be good. Good is what God is.

Staci: I get it, I get it! You don’t have to keep saying it.

Dannah: Okay, I just want to make sure we really understand it.

Staci: I do. God is good. Noted!

True Girl, say it out loud: God is good. Okay, say it with me on the count of three: one, two, three, GOD IS GOOD!

Dannah: Okay, we’ve got that down!

All over the Old Testament, God promises to “do good” to the Israelites who follow Him. One place we see some of what that means is in Deuteronomy chapter 8. I’m going to read parts of verses 11–16. This is Moses talking to all the Israelites. He said,

Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today. . . . Do not become proud . . . and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness. . . . He gave you water from the rock. He fed you with manna in the wilderness. . . . He did this to humble you and test you for your own good.

Staci: So, “good” doesn’t always mean “fun”?

Dannah: Uh, no. I think I mentioned this earlier in the season, but it never hurts to say it again. Because God is good and holy, He can’t stand sin. He won’t ignore it. So when we sin He disciplines us by making our lives hard, He’s doing good to us, because it makes us realize how much we need His help.

Staci: There’s a verse in Psalms that says a similar thing. It’s in Psalm 25.

Can you look it up? I accidentally left my Bible in my room.

Dannah: Sure. That’s one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, Staci. Okay, Psalm 25, verse 8 says:

The Lord is good and does what is right; he shows the proper path to those who go astray.

Staci: That’s the one.

Dannah: You’re right, that is the same idea. Because God is good, He teaches us the right way to go.

Staci: Yeah. He doesn’t leave us to deal with our sin on our own.

Dannah: He is amazingly generous to teach us lovingly and patiently. And, because the Holy Spirit makes us like Him when He changes our hearts, He gives His goodness to us.

Staci: It really is His goodness inside us, because we don’t have any on our own.

Dannah: Right. On the outside, goodness might not look too different than kindness. They both show themselves in actions toward other people. But goodness is more than just caring for people; it’s an overflow of God’s goodness in us that makes us want to be generous toward others—generous with our love and grace.

Staci: Wow, I never thought about that before.

Dannah: Psalm chapter 34 talks about God's goodness. Verse 14 says, “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

So in one sense, goodness is choosing the right over the wrong, choosing good over evil. And that shows itself in goodness to other people. Like I just said, God makes His goodness flow out of us.

But more than just wanting to make people feel better like kindness does, goodness is willing to say hard things to people. Because someone who’s experienced God’s goodness knows that what another person needs is to experience it too, or be reminded of it.

Staci: So you mean, if someone is sinning, showing goodness to him means explaining how he’s wrong?

Dannah: Well, not necessarily. Sometimes it does mean explaining, sometimes it doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean that you can just tell everybody everything they’re doing wrong.

Staci: Oh, no!

Dannah: You have to be careful. Sometimes it’s okay. I would say it’s very rarely okay to correct someone older than you—like a parent or a teacher.

Staci: All the time?

Dannah: No, not always. Let me see . . . Okay, we’re talking about confronting sin, but to explain it, let me tell you two things that happened to me at the event we just did recently.

Like last week at a live True Girl event, I put a hat on my head during the teaching. And then I took it off and kept teaching . . . only my hair was wild and crazy, so wild! So the girls in the front row were making motions for me to fix my hair. They had silly smiles on their faces, so I knew something was wrong! That’s totally okay.

Staci: And please do that if I ever look as silly as Dannah did! 

Dannah: But after the event, an adult came up to me and said, “Dannah, I loved that whole event. My daughter and I learned to study the Bible together. It will change our lives! I mean that. But there was one thing I had a question about.”

Then, she asked me about a Bible verse where we have different opinions about how to understand that verse. We had a lovely conversation, but she was confronting me. And by the way, we agreed to disagree, which does happen on some things in the Bible that aren’t the big things! Do you see how carefully she did it?

Staci: Oh, first she waited.

Dannah: Yes.

Staci: Then, well, she didn’t tell you. She asked you, “Can I ask something?”

Dannah: Right, she had a humble heart.

Staci: And it sounds like she was kind about it.

Dannah: Exactly. The fruit of the Spirit was all over her!

Staci: I think if a True Girl had a question about your teaching, maybe she should have said, “Hey, Mom! Can I ask you a question?” And then together they could come ask you!

Dannah: Of course! Now, let’s talk about the other side of this coin.

Staci: When you’re the one being confronted?

Dannah: That’s the one! Keep in mind, we aren't always talking about a messy hair day. Sometimes we are talking about when you just are doing something not good. True Girl, I've got to tell you that you'll be confronted like this a lot! And, it is good! Do you know why I know you'll be confronted like this a lot?

Staci: Why?

Dannah: Because moms and dads are in an important role. They are called by God to correct you when you are wrong. They have that responsibility. So when you are making a wrong choice, your parents do good to them by disciplining you, or letting you experience consequences. They do it because they love you. It's their way of doing good. It’s how we slowly learn to make the right choices. So, if your mom pointed out any sin or bad behavior in your life lately, just turn to her and say, “Mom that was good!” In fact, do it now if you can!

Staci, can you think of an example where it might be okay for a True Girl to confront sin?

Staci: How about this? Your friend is all excited to tell you about the trick she’s planning to play on these other kids at school. And it’s not a fun joke; it’s actually pretty mean. You might kindly say something like this: “You know, would you think about not doing that? How would you feel if they did that to you? You remember that the Bible says we’re supposed to be kind even to people who aren’t nice to us. Let’s think about this!”

Dannah: Yeah, I think that’s a good example. Be sure you say it in a loving way, though. It’s very possible that your friend will not listen to you. That’s not your responsibility. It’s only your responsibility to be kind and to confront her. And that is good. 

Staci: Right. And if you’re really concerned, it’s also good to tell a teacher or an adult. That’s not tattling. That’s helping to confront sin. It’s just important you do it with the right heart.

Dannah: Yeah. On the other hand, lots of times doing good means giving up something you want. Maybe your little sister wants someone to cuddle with her and read her books after her nap. You’re in the middle of a super exciting book yourself, but you care about your sister, so you decide to put down your book and read Dr. Seuss for the three-hundredth time, even though you don’t really want to.

Staci: Now, we gotta be careful here, because sometimes when people say they’re “doing good” they mean that they try to do good things so that God is more happy with them or to make up for the bad things they’ve done. But that’s not what we mean.

Dannah: No, not at all. Thanks for bringing that up, Staci. Once again, goodness is a fruit of the Spirit. You can’t have true goodness at all until after God has already changed your heart. If you’re a child of God, when He looks at you He sees Jesus’ perfect life. Your sins are already forgiven. You could never do enough to make up for your sin, but you don’t have to, because Jesus already did it for you. Isn’t that awesome!?

Staci: It sure is! It’s not just cool, it’s amazing that He would do that!

Dannah: Agreed. And in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said that our “good works” are to be like a light that makes people glorify God. That’s the whole point; it’s about God, not us.

Staci: Yes. I think the thing to remember is that a girl who is truly kind and good doesn’t just do nice things just so that people like her or to get some kind of reward. That’s not the kind of good we really mean. It’s when your actions are motivated by what God has done for you that our goodness is from the Holy Spirit.

Dannah: Right. [Timer beeping]

Staci: I wanna do something good for you. You just sit back and relax, Dannah Gresh. I got this!

Dannah: I can’t wait to taste these muffins! 

Staci: I thought they were for breakfast!?

Dannah: Um, now that I'm smelling them, and think we've got to split one. Gotta make sure they’re not poisonous, you know. 

Staci: Ooh, ouch, that’s hot! Yikes!

Dannah: I was just gonna say, maybe we should let it cool a minute!

Staci: That would have been smart.

Claire: I hadn’t ever thought about the difference between kindness and goodness. I’m glad Dannah and Staci talked about it, but Dannah’s right. As long as God has worked in your heart and you’re living for Him, you will practice both of them without having to really think about which is which.

Well, this is the time of year to try out new recipes, right? If you think those cranberry muffins sound delicious, guess what? As part of this season, “A Recipe for a Fruitful Life,” we’re including real recipes for everything Dannah and Staci make. You can find those at ReviveOurHearts.com. You’ll find today’s recipe in the transcript for this episode, called “Baked-In Goodness.”

We’re over halfway through talking about the fruit of the Spirit. Next time, we’ll look at faithfulness. What does it mean to be faithful when things are tough. We'll find out next time.

The True Girl podcast is produced by Revive Our Hearts, calling women of all ages to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ!

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Cranberry Muffins

Recipe from The Yankee Cookbook, ⓒ 1963, Imogene Wolcott.

¾ cups fresh cranberries, halved

½ cup powdered sugar

2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons sugar

1 egg, well beaten

1 cup milk

4 tablespoons oil or shortening

Mix halved cranberries with the powdered sugar and let stand while preparing muffin mixture.

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add egg, milk, and oil; then add the sugared cranberries. Mix just until combined, but do not beat. Bake in greased muffin pans or muffin cups for 20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

If desired, make drizzle by mixing ½ cup powdered sugar with just enough orange juice (1-2 teaspoons) to make it runny enough to drip from a spoon.

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