Fruit: Goodness

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." - Galatians 5:22-23

"By their fruit you will recognize them." - Matthew 7:16a

According to my dictionary, the first definition of goodness is, "the quality of being good".  Helpful, right?  Makes me wonder who never told them that you can't use a word in its own definition.  Thankfully, the second definition is actually much better, and provides a bit of insight that I hadn't considered before: "The beneficial or nourishing element of food."

Since we're not talking about food here, let's focus on the "beneficial and nourishing" part.  Wow!  I don't know why exactly, but that gives me a whole different perspective on goodness.  This seems fairly straightforward when applied to real life.  I need to make sure that whatever I'm doing, it's for the benefit of others.  I also need to be sure it's nourishing them, which could be as simple as actually feeding someone, or perhaps feeding their soul and spirit instead.

So let's apply this to how we behave in games, shall we?

Once again cooperative games seem to be an ideal place for us to demonstrate this fruit in our lives.  We can play to benefit the other player, letting them have the health packs instead of greedily grabbing them for ourselves.  We can help defend them from opponents rather than running away to save ourselves.

Notice how these examples require us to put ourselves aside?  That's not to say that we can't benefit from helping someone else, just that we are not our own priority.  In fact, if we're all working for the benefit of someone else, we'll be taken care of just like the other guy and won't have to worry about ourselves at all.

Does this definition of goodness as "beneficial and nourishing" help you understand it better?  What other ways can you think of to demonstrate goodness in games?  How can you apply this to the way that you play?