Growing as an Enneagram One: The PerfectionistSample

God’s Goodness 

Have you ever thought about how God’s goodness is reflected in His design for creation? Every beautiful sunset, every waterfall, every majestic animal, and every miraculous human body was created by God…and He called them all good.

God is a God who cares about good things. Everything He made, in the beginning, was very good, and very good is still His desire for His creation.

As humans, we instinctively know when we see God’s good design. This is why we feel awe or feel very small when we see a sunset, or why we get that satisfying feeling when we look at something with symmetry or a very organized design. That’s how God intended everything to be, and our soul is at rest and at home in His good design.

As an Enneagram One, you probably nod your head as you read of God’s good design. The flaws that have come with sin, death, and destruction may pain you more than any other Enneagram type. You see the impact of sin everywhere and have such a keen gauge for what good meant to our Creator. Knowing you do not live in a world that is truly good like Eden feels like living with a huge rock in your shoe. It’s just hard not to focus on what’s wrong. But when you see how “not good” everything is, that’s an opportunity for you to agree with God about His very good design.

God did not intend for us to live in this painful, dying, not good world. His plan was full of beauty, peace, prosperity, and so much goodness. When we notice and focus on those things that still reflect God’s perfect design for the world—things like beauty in nature, happy emotions, foods that thrill our taste buds, good health, and wonderful music—we are agreeing with God on His original plan for us, and we have an opportunity to rejoice with hope in what He has prepared for us to come.

Spend some time in prayer thanking God for His good design. If these words reflect your heart, please borrow them:

Dear heavenly Father, I praise You for Your good design, and how You uniquely wired me to enjoy and seek this goodness. I pray that You will help me to notice more of what is good, rather than what is wrong today. Amen.