Posted October 15, 2015 under Blog

When "Good" is Enough

Have you ever heard of the Diderot phenomenon?

A French philosopher in the 18th century, Denis Diderot, wrote an essay entitled “Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown”.

In his writings, this French man described how he was given a beautiful, elegant coat (in those days called a “dressing gown”) to replace his old one. In the beginning, the new coat gave him a lot of satisfaction. Yet having it began a downward spiral of discontent in his life.

As he started wearing his brand new coat, Diderot began feeling more and more unhappy with his life. Suddenly, everything else he owned felt unsatisfactory, and “not good enough”.

The clothes that he once thought so comfortable were now not stylish enough,
his old pants were no match for the new coat, the old, familiar chair he used to sit on was now too shabby for such a nice attire, even the table where he worked at now look inelegant!

Nothing looked “good enough” anymore. Not even his wife.

Upgrading his lifestyle became an obsession. He spent a lot of time and energy in acquiring new possessions and new people contacts, to the detriment of his family relationships.

It’s so easy to go “Diderot-ing” nowadays. Social media offers us an overload of opportunities to compare yourself with others, and push you further to meet the world’s standards.

You think you’re a good parent until you see the blog of that supermom whose children’s lunchboxes look like a work of art: Hardboiled eggs shaped like rabbits, vegetables molded like Rubik’s cubes. Now why can’t I be like that?

You watch a video of someone’s 3 year old already knowing how to read and write!

Now why can’t my kid do that??

A guy finds his Facebook friend driving a brand new car. Now his own vehicle doesn’t feel like a blessing anymore.

You view pictures of a sibling traveling abroad, then you feel upset with your local “stay cation”.

Even the term “tiger mom” was coined to describe hyper-strict Asian mothers, who are never satisfied with a child’s academic performance, unless the child is perfect.

We pack our days with “Things to Do”, commit to urgent demands on our schedules, and pressure our families to achieve what others define as “success”. We end each day, wondering, “did we succeed enough, study enough or parent enough…?”

We never seem to be rich enough, smart enough, successful enough to feel fulfilled.
When will “good” ever be enough, in our increasingly discontented lives?

Genesis, the first book of the Bible, describes the undertaking of a tremendously huge project: the creation of the world. Talk about an intimidatingly looong list of things to do!! Here’s how God handled the creation of “nothing” into “something”:

God created his world in stages.

“For everything there is an appointed time, and an appropriate time for every activity on earth.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Even though He could, God did not create the world in one instant.

In Creation, He didn’t cram all that needed to be done in one day. There was a designated priority from day one through six. God wasn’t bothered with unfinished projects spread out over a period of time.

Could He be sending man an example of how to live his life, raise a child, build a career?

Secret #1: Progress comes in stages. Life is lived in seasons.

Everyday, just be a faithful, responsible steward of your area of responsibility. Keep applying Godly principles and let Him be the one to promote you.

We see it in nature, as seeds are sown and stewarded until they bear fruit. We see it in the growth of a human being, from conception to birth to infancy to childhood, to his teenage years and beyond—we don’t give birth to instant adults!

Instead of frustrating ourselves, wanting results NOW with our kids, our marriages, ourselves, fussing over progress that seems so slow in coming… Don’t give up because the work is still unfinished. Growth comes through stewardship and consistent faithfulness, not shortcuts.

“Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:2)

Secret # 2: Follow God’s Persective. “…and God saw that it was Good.”

We do know that when a word is often repeated, it is a weighty word. In Genesis 1, the phrase “and God saw that it was good” was repeated at least five times. Each time connected to the accomplishments done that day.

God saw his work as GOOD and ended each day with that perspective. Sure, the job of creating the world was still incomplete, but I loved how God summarized His days with “I did good today”.

So, I gave it a try. At the end of the day, I’d think:

”Marie, you did good, meeting with ___________ today.”

“Marie, you were a blessing today.”

“Marie, you did good by not screaming at the driver who stole your parking space.”

I also tried it on my hubby and kids:

“Joey, that was a good decision you made today.”

“Josh, thank you for accompanying me. You did a good thing today.”

God reviewed each day, and called his labor “good”. Satisfactory. Enough for the day.

Imagine the effect we’ll have on others, if we had the habit of highlighting the good done that day instead of constantly complaining about the undone? Wouldn’t they be more motivated to do “more good”?

Just knowing that God actually sees the good you do on a daily basis, even when no one else does, is so encouraging to me!

So, dear reader, thank you for reading this far. You did good by reading this today :)

There are more secrets to share, so see you next Thursday!