31 Days of Hope - Day 17

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. 

If you are honest, people may cheat you. 

Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. 

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. 

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.  

It was never between you and them anyway.” 

― Mother Teresa

Having hope means for me that I need to be better than I want to be.  Forgiveness, kindness, honesty, happiness, and goodness are all qualities that I want to find in myself.  Sometimes, the noises of the world surround us and drown out the whisper of hope.  That part that is inside us that reminds us of what is most important.  Especially when we listen to others who are unkind or uncaring.  We end up surrounded in the noise of unhappiness and despair.
Because to listen to what others are saying, is to hear that if we are not perfect, if we don’t do what others think is "right" than we are simply not good enough.  Those voices of "not good enough" can follow each one of us and change the way we view the world around us.  Those real or imagined voices can take away our hope.  
Those voices prey upon our mistakes, as well as the mistakes of those we love.  Those voices would have us think that life is a competition against each other instead of a journey to share.  They would have us give up.  They would have us hurt back.  They would have us forget where we came from and where we are going.  They would have us lose all hope.   
So, I am learning that I need to have hope anyway.  I need to act as if all is well.  I need to be the person that I dream of being.  I think that Mother Teresa is right.  It really is between me and my Heavenly Father.