Fruits of the Spirit - Goodness

I've always been a little bit unsure about exactly what "goodness" is. I know good and evil, but is goodness just meaning the "good"? Is goodness from the Holy Spirit just the idea of all the good things in life? 

The dictionary defines "goodness" as the following:
1. the state or quality of being good.
2. moral excellence; virtue.
3. kindly feeling; kindness; generosity.
4. excellence of quality; goodness of workmanship.
5. the best part of anything; essence; strength.

I believe the goodness that is the gift of the Holy Spirit is the good that we can see in people. The good that comes out showing love and kindness and all of the other great things that we are given. I'm not sure that goodness can really be shown without showing any of the other gifts of the Holy Spirit with it. 

I also thought I would look at some other Bible verses that contain the word goodness to see if I could find anything further on the subject. 

Psalm 69:16 says, "Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me." Of course if the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of goodness, He must possess this goodness. And here we see that the Lord goodness in love. Goodness is shown through love.

"And the Lord said, 'I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion'." (Exodus 33:19) The Lord doesn't just show goodness through love. He shows it through mercy and compassion. This is how it passes onto us, and we can pass His goodness onto others.

"...make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;" (2 Peter 1:4-6) Goodness is definitely not something we can have on it's own, we need to grow in our goodness and help it to become more becoming more and more like Christ.

Thankful for: Education

I just spent the evening with some friends and for some of the time was feeling a little bit stupid. I don't have the biggest vocabulary, I like to keep things simple so sometimes when people use words I don't understand I feel a little dumb around them. But I soon realise that although I do not use big words, I am intelligent in other ways. I'm thankful for the education that I was able to receive. I know that if I had not had this education, there are a lot of things I would not be able to do. Reading the Bible would be a difficult task if I had never learnt to read.