I'M GOOD

Have you ever wondered whether you really know yourself? Have you ever set yourself to study the reason for your "good" or "bad" actions, and why you so often pass judgement on other people's mistakes and less often on your own? 

Tell me the truth: you think you always sit on the throne of the good one, right? 

When my parents didn't let me come home at a certain time, I considered them bad; I thought about how much pleasure they took in making me "suffer" by restricting me to hours that were inconvenient for me.

But was that really the case?

My point of view "yesterday" was in the wrong place, and "today", now that I am a parent too, I understand that this restriction on me was in fact a "good" gesture.

This short story is to explain that very often we find ourselves in the wrong points of view , not only as teenagers but also as adults, passing off a "bad" action as "good" and vice versa, both when it comes to other people's actions and our own.

Have you ever said, or heard someone say, this sentence?: "I was good because I didn't tell her the truth to her face!"

It is hard to tell the truth; it is even harder to tell it while taking care not to "offend" other people's sensitivity.

I am saying that not telling the truth is the most comfortable choice (but it has very little goodness in it): it doesn't make you argue, it is accommodating and that is why people choose it: a little compromise, basically!

But do you want to call hypocrisy a "good" action? Do you really think that sowing silence can bring you anything good?...

Another statement we have surely heard or said.

Nothing could be more wrong! Why help someone "reluctantly" just to inflate your own ego with a False Goodness of Heart? Better not to do it! 

If your conscience pushed you to help despite that person's lack of merit towards you, take advantage of the "charity moment" to make your thoughts clear to them instead of opting for a hypocritical silence.

We have very confused ideas about what goodness of heart is, and the quote from Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things and BEYOND CURE. Who can understand it?" describes this miserable human condition, which surely finds Hope in God for a change in the face of repeated failures.

Our conscience is so addicted to hypocrisy that we cannot recognise the motives behind our actions; we only see their purpose in order to "enjoy ourselves", but we will certainly not "taste their fruit", it will be like a seed thrown onto asphalt.

Making "do-goodism" a way of life will not bring about positive change: it will seem to bring peace, but in reality it will produce a false balance in ourselves and in our relationships with others.

Just as you cannot expect to leave a trail of perfume without having washed for days, in the same way you cannot build healthy relationships, only relationships of convenience where sincerity is never exchanged and where covering things up with a lie is considered good for a quiet life.

Ask yourself: "Am I well? Am I really happy? Am I, with others, the person I really am? Have I built a mask that makes my relationships with others comfortable but doesn't let me feel good about myself?

If you thought "this is me!" while reading this short text, don't blame yourself! 

Choose the tools you need to get out of the fence of respectability and simply be true, accepting the "downside" too, that is, not being able to please everyone; this will improve you and also the society you live in.