When I was young, maybe 10 or 11, I remember a sermon from the pastor at our church, Father Andy. It is one of the things I remember vividly from my childhood. His sermon was titled: “Not being bad is not the same as being good.” The sermon name piqued my interest. The opposite of bad is good, right? So where was he going with this?

His sermon was directed at us kids that day, we were allowed to stay in church rather than leave for our Sunday school classes as was typical following the first 20 minutes or so. I’m not sure why that day was special, but it was. Father Andy gave lots of examples of being good. And plenty of examples of being bad. Then he went on to explain the difference between good, bad, and indifference. How being good or bad required action. You had to “do” something to be good or bad. But indifference was best defined by no action at all. Making no effort to do anything. If I did not steal, I was not being bad. But my lack of stealing did not make me good either. It just meant that I was doing “nothing”. He then paraphrased a Bible verse about coming across a man who had been beaten and robbed. Certainly those who had done the beating were bad. But what was I if I crossed to the other side of the street and did nothing to help? Since I did not beat or steal from the man, I was not bad. But if I was indifferent, I was certainly not being good.

Father Andy challenged each of us to be good.

For whatever reason, the sermon stuck and ever since I have been keen on looking at situations with an eye towards “being good”. I’ll admit that I sometimes fail this test, but I also know that I often make an effort to be good thanks to what I learned from Father Andy that Sunday morning so many years ago. This website is a place to record all of the nice things that people do for one another. From the tiniest little gesture to the greatest sacrifice. The purpose is to aggregate these actions together, share the emotions they produce and demonstrate that when we interact with courtesy, selflessness and respect we have a positive impact on those we meet. Take a moment each day to say ‘Thanks’ for the nice things that people do for you, read what others are saying “thank you” for and share the stories that you find most heart-warming with others.