Discouragement is something that we all experience at one time or another. All of us fall short of what we want to be and do for Jesus, and this is the thing that most often saddens us and causes us to lose courage. Often the discouragement comes because we have set too high a standard for ourselves, or someone else has set too high a standard for us. We want so much to do our best and live up to what the Lord expects of us, what others expect of us, and even what we expect of ourselves. And when we don't, we feel like a failure and a disappointment.

Sometimes the problem is that we don't understand God's standard for us, and we think that He is demanding perfection. Sometimes we want to live up to the ideal in every area of our lives, and when we find that we can't, we despair, because we're looking at what we can't do instead of all the things we can do!

Jesus looks at everything about us that is positive, and He overlooks the negative. When He looks at us, He sees the good in us, and the good things we have done. He doesn't look at the bad or the times we fail. Even when we think we've gotten pretty far away from His standard, and we've taken on wrong attitudes, or built up walls that shut Him or others out, He looks on us with such love and tenderness.