Define Good

I went to the pharmacy today, and over the register, I noticed this sign, 

"Dear Santa, Define GOOD".  

I had to laugh.  Doesn't that sound just like a naughty child?  Someone who wants to know just how far over the line he can cross and still be "good".  When I thought a little harder about it, the statement really got me to thinking about what we expect in our lives and how do we each define good and bad.  
I looked up the word good in the dictionary.  Imagine my shock, when I found 58 definitions for the word good.  I am only going to list a few here.
  
The word good means:  morally excellent, virtuous, righteous, pious, of high quality, excellent, right, proper, well-behaved, kind, beneficent, friendly, honorable, worthy, educated, refined, safe, genuine, sound, valid, reliable, dependable, responsible, healthful, beneficial, in excellent condition, not spoiled or tainted, favorable, propitious, cheerful,  optimistic, amiable, free of distress or pain, comfortable, agreeable, pleasant, attractive, free from blemish, close or intimate, warm, sufficient or ample, advantageous, competent or skillful, clever, skillfully or expertly done, socially proper, comparatively new or of relatively fine quality, best or most dressy, full, fairly large or great, free from precipitation or cloudiness, loyal, favorably regarded.  


 Can you look at that list and see that there are not any negatives associated with the word good?  Can you see that it is not just a small word?  It is a word rich with meaning.  Who amoung us would not like to have several, if not all of these attributes?  We live in a society today that is constantly trying to redefine the word good.  Society would have us believe that it is ok to lie a little, cheat a little, or even steal a little.  Where in the above definition do you read that good is being just a little bad?  
Society, and specifically Satan, wants us to fail.  He does not want us make it back home.  He wants us to doubt ourselves and even doubt our Heavenly Father.  He wants us to hurt each other.  He wants us to know pain.  He wants us to feel hopeless and alone.  I don't see any of those things under the definition of good either.  So, in my mind, Satan is for anything that encourages you to forgo what you know is good.  He would have you believe that you are not good enough.  That you are not really a child of God.  That you have sinned too much and gone too far to ever turn back.  His is the law of "never going to make it"!  He is the only one that is telling you that you do not have what it takes to go back to your Heavenly Father.  So, who are you going to listen to?  


Joshua 24:15  And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.  

May you never in your life need to say, "There's the ark, and I am not on it".

Personally, I don't want to listen to anyone that was on the other side of the flood!  I think I prefer to listen to latter day prophets.   I love this statement by Gordon B. Hinckley.


“[This] statement intrigued me—Mormon means ‘more good.’ I knew, of course,that ‘more good’ was not a derivative of the word Mormon. I had studied both Latin and Greek, and I knew that English is derived in some measure from those two languages and that the words more good are not a cognate of the word Mormon. But his was a positive attitude based on an interesting perception. And, as we all know, our lives are guided in large measure by our perceptions. Ever since, when I have seen the word Mormon used in the media to describe us—in a newspaper or a magazine or book or whatever—there flashes into my mind his statement, which has become my motto: Mormon means ‘more good.’ ”
*Ensign* 1990:11:51ff., available online at http://tinyurl.com/moregood90 .


Let us set out today to be "more good" as we strive to follow the commandments of our Heavenly Father.  He loves us.  He cares for us.  And He wants us to return to His presence.  May you find within yourself the ability to do good and to be good! 


"[God] loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are important to God not because of our résumé but because we are His children. He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. God's love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked."What this means is that, regardless of our current state, there is hope for us. No matter our distress, no matter our sorrow, no matter our mistakes, our infinitely compassionate Heavenly Father desires that we draw near to Him so that He can draw near to us."

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Love of God," Ensign, Nov. 2009, 22–23


May God grant us the strength and the discipline so to conduct our lives as to follow more nearly the matchless example of the Redeemer, of whom it was said, He “went about doing good.”  (Acts 10:38)