The problem of good

Before my conversion I struggled with the problem of evil,  but ever since my conversion I've been struggling with the problem of good:  how do I make sense of all this good I see in people who are not Christian?  Seriously, I've encountered many people- unbelievers and professing Christians who I suspect are not regenerate - who are much more moral than I.  How can that be if I have the Holy Spirit?  How do they do it?  How can they consistently act so kind and selfless while I am impatient and rude, if they're not Christians -  and what does that say about my faith???

It used to ease my mind to believe that people gave to charity and did good deeds to feed the pride of their own goodness.  But how do I explain something like Dick Hoyt's self-sacrificial love for his son Rick?   What about something you see all the time: a unbelieving mother's love for her child - is the root of that totally depraved because they are not Christians? An unbeliever once challenged me about this and I started to say that there is no good in people so the root of a mother's love must be selfishness, which sounded so ridiculous to me as I had said it out loud that I scrambled to switch gears and all I could come up with was, "well it's because we are made in His image". That answer might have been o.k. with him, but it was not enough to for me! I thought no one could do any good without the Holy Spirit...

Well, hurray I can have my sanity back because of the Doctrine of Common Grace!  So far, I've read The Problem of Good by Scott Kauffmann. And adding on to my massive list of TO DO, He Shines in All that's Fair by Richard Mouw.  And a PRACTICAL conclusion of this DOCTRINE?

"We can affirm the “good” an unbeliever experiences as real good, not an illusion – and can say with confidence that this good comes from God."

It's not an illusion - I'm not crazy!  Amen!