Is it Mostly Sunny or Partly Cloudy?

I've always liked to think that our best character traits are the way that we are most like God.

For instance, we have all heard of people who "have the patience of a saint." I believe that they actually have the patience of God. Love, mercy, compassion, reason, creativity, even things like perceptiveness and discernment. If we are made in God's image, then what part of Him do you look like? Maybe these are the gifts of The Holy Spirit; maybe they're God's personal stamp on you that He placed there when He looked at you and said "It is good!" God gave us these traits out of Himself and when we are operating out of them, we are acting out of our true selves.

It may be mine that I tend to look at people out of a sense of eternal optimism. Which is probably why I get so disappointed when those I know act exactly how I thought they would, but not how I had hoped they would. I'd like to think of this as a good part of my character, that I am always hoping that someone will operate out of the best of themselves, that they will choose the wiser path, that they will bloom. I also try to encourage others to live up to their best, and I get very emotional when I see them accomplish it, or at least take the next step. But it seems to be so rare. Much more often people don't choose to stretch for the better or best they can be, but instead do what they're used to. I'm as guilty of it as anybody: the desire to be comfortable overwhelms the desire to work at being better. 

I like to think that God is the same way. He hopes the best for us every day. Maybe the only way God can love us after the things we do is because He's optimistic. He knows how He made us and what we can be if we will walk and talk with Him. Jeremiah 29:11:  "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." 

Trust Him, for 

       God is not a man, that He should lie, 

       nor a son of man, that He should change his mind. 
       Does He speak and then not act? 
       Does He promise and not fulfill? (Numbers 23:19)

My heart is let down whenever someone doesn't live up to the best of themselves. When they choose to be petty instead of great. When they choose to follow the crowd instead of blazing a new trail. When they chase what they want instead of what they need. When they don't have courage to back up their convictions and life choices, but instead look for opportunities to escape them. 

My heart hurts worst when I do these same things.

These are choices, even if the worse option is easier to choose than the better. Just because a choice is easy doesn't make it the right one; God often works in a way we would consider paradoxical, so the difficult choice sometimes is the right one (and ends up being easier in the long run). Make God happy today. Be everything you and He know you can be.