God's goodness

I think it's hard for us to imagine God's goodness when we come from such a corrupt and broken place ourselves.
We make the mistake of believing that His goodness is directly dependent upon our performance.
Let me explain- when we have disobeyed God in some way and start to feel guilty about it, we tend to shy away from Him. We start to think of Him as a very angry judge, glaring down on us. Ready to shower His disdain upon us and withhold His love.
And indeed, He may punish us for what we decided to do. But I believe it is not coming from a place of disdain as much as it is coming from a place of correction.
God will allow natural consequences to occur, however unpleasant, if He knows that these consequences will ultimately produce a change in our hearts for the good and turn us away from our sin.
He allows us to feel the sting of sins consequences in hopes that we might realize the unpleasant taste of it and crave the sweetness of His goodness, turning back again to Him.
I liken this somewhat to how I sometimes handle my daughter's insistence to pickup every little thing off the floor and try to eat it. I realized that if I kept taking it away and saying no before she could taste it, she never learned for herself why she shouldn't try to eat it. And also she was more likely to question my resistance, having never learned for herself why I chose to say no.
So one day I decided I would just have to let her taste some of this forbidden floor food for herself so she could come to the conclusion that it was undesirable for eating, having tasted its bitterness.
It didn't take long after that for her to soon realise that the fresh food I offered up on her high chair tray was much more desirable because of its pleasant taste.
In the same way, God allows us to taste sin. This doesn't make Him a bad God. In the story of the prodigal son, the father allows the son to take his inheritance and go out on his own. The son makes poor decisions and soon squanders away all his money. He ends up working as a lowly servant, feeding slop to the pigs. He tastes the unpleasant consequences of his poor choices.
Does this make his father an unloving father, that he would allow his son to suffer so? Quite the contrary! It makes him a very good father. He allows his son to suffer enough that he can come to the conclusion that living his own way leads to being in bondage.
When the son comes sorrowfully back to his father, does the father send him away or shake a finger at him, scolding him with an "I knew you'd come crawling back."?
Does he make him work as a household servant to earn his way back into the father's good graces?
No! This father runs out to meet his son where he's at and joyfully embraces him! He puts the best robe and gold ring on his son! He rejoices over the fact that his once lost son has come home again!
I think a lot of times it's easy for us to view God as having the first two reactions I've described.
It's hard for us to view Him as the loving Father, eager to forgive us.
But that's exactly who He is! He wants to wipe our slates clean and help us get back up again! He has no interest in rubbing your mistakes in. So, if you start to feel like He is- recognize that that is not Him doing so. God is not in the habit of rubbing salt into our wounds. You know who is in the habit of doing so though? The adversary! Don't buy into that mind game! Recognize where the condemnation is coming from and allow God's unconditional love to pick you back up again! His love never fails! =)

Lamentations 3:22-23
  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
   they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.