Day 13 Being Good

"Broken Fence," Gary Bunt

“Again, the knowledge of God is distinct from morality, or what the children call ‘being good,’ though ‘being good’ follows from that knowledge. But let these come in their right order.”
 
                                                      *
 
“A child's whole notion of religion is 'being good.' It is well that he should know that being good is not his whole duty to God, although it is so much of it; that the relationship of love and personal service, which he owes as a child to his Father, as a subject to his King, is even more than the 'being good' which gives our Almighty Father such pleasure in His children.”

                                                    *
 
“… we are not allowed to be good to others, or even to be good in ourselves, just for the sake of being good. Love, and the service of love, are the only things that count.”
 
                                                    *
 
“I should like to urge that this incidental play of education and circumstances upon personality is our only legitimate course. We may not make character our conscious objective. Provide a child with what he needs in the way of instruction, opportunity, and wholesome occupation, and his character will take care of itself: for normal children are persons of good will, with honest desires toward right thinking and right living. All we can do further is to help a child to get rid of some hindrance––a bad temper, for example––likely to spoil his life. In our attempts to do this, our action should, I think, be most guarded. We may not interfere with his psychological development, because we recognise that children are persons, and personality should be far more inviolable in our eyes than property.”

                                                       
                                                    *

“It is well not to expect too much of ourselves. Not to be too good nor to be happy…."
 
                                                    *
 
“That to try too hard to make people good, is one way to make them worse; that the only way to make them good is to be good - remembering well the beam and the mote; that the time for speaking comes rarely, the time for being never departs.”
                                                                   
                                                   ~ George MacDonald

                                                   *
 
“For the rest, (things of which you justly accuse yourself) you will find it less easy to uproot faults, than to choke them by gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults: in every person who comes near you, look for what is good and strong: honor that: rejoice in it; and if you can, try to imitate it: and your faults will drop off like dead leaves, when their time comes.”                                     
                                                   ~ Ruskin
 
 
 
Examen: “Distinguish between ‘being good’ and loving God.”Why may I not make character an aim?


~~~~~~~
Again, the knowledge: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:347.
A child’s whole:  Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:136.
 ...we are not: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:154 Bk.II.
 I should like: Formation of Character, 5:preface.
It is well:  ed. Dr. Benjamin Bernier, Scale How Meditations, 36.
That to try: “The Project Gutenberg Ebook of Sir Gibbie, by George Macdonald, by George Macdonald—A Project Gutenberg eBook,” accessed June 5, 2024, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2370/2370-h/2370-h.htm.
For the rest: “The Ethics of the Dust, by John Ruskin,” Lecture V.
Distinguish between “being good”: School, 3:261.

Day 13 Being Good meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025

---