Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The Orgin of Goodness

Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

I learned as a child that the etymology of the word "good" comes from the word "God". Unfortunately, I can not find any online sources that agree with that. Was I taught wrong. Perhaps, but not entirely. The word "good" may or may not come from the word God in the English language ( though the phrase Goodbye does come from God be with you ), the very existence of goodness is found only in God.

Every time the word goodness is mentioned in the Old Testament, it is in reference to God. I got that on a search on Biblegateway. I'm not a Bible Scholar or anything. I just observed that on that website. Could my search be at fault? Sure. My limitations could always be at fault. It is my own faults and limitations that put goodness out of my own grasp.

The New Testament however, mentions the word goodness as referring to God, and to a gift He gives us. Goodness is out of my reach. I can not grab it on my own. But God offers it as a gift. I can't snatch it and become good. But He can give His goodness.

God truly is wonderful. amazing, and good. Every day He gives us the best of Himself.

This brief post on goodness is my contribution to Bridget Chumbley's One Word Blog Carnival. Today's word is goodness.

5 comments:

Glynn said...

That would be interesting - to find out if "goodness" and "God" come from the same word. (Probably related to the "gut" and "Gott" in German.) Nice post, Helen.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Glynn... that would be interesting.

God is goodness... any way you slice it!

Great post, Helen.

Bernadette Pabon ,Teacher, Director of CCD, Author said...

That is true Helen, the word Goodness actually means God is good, also I learned that as a child and I do not know the source, great post,love it.

♥ Kathy said...

Very nice post Helen ♥ You said on my blog that you tried to open something and it wouldn't...email me and I'll try to figure it out sweetie

Life Is Beautiful said...

Hello Helen, I'm just popping in to say hello. You may have noticed I've come out from under the Cheri tree. I am leaving the bloggiverse for a while to arrange my wedding for the end of August. My girlfriend has kindly said YES!! I hope to get a blog started myself again sometime in the near future. I'll pop back and let you know when I do. Meantime, I pray that "goodness and love" will follow me into married life :) So long for now ... Pip ;)