From a book:

"'Character' literally means 'to stamp and engrave through pressure.' This sums up what God is doing in our lives.
"God's plan is to make each person like Him. Romans 8:29 tells us that God predestined that we are to conform into the image of Christ. He is building His character within us, or you might say, He is stamping and engraving upon us His image. In so doing, He often uses pressure.
"The fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches and the Father is the vine dresser. What happens to every branch that does not bear fruit? It is cut away, then dries up, and is finally burned. What happens to every branch that does bear fruit? He prunes it. Therefore, no matter what we do we are all going to get cut.
"Why are branches pruned? To produce fruit of greater quantity and quality. While much of God's pruning hurts, we should greatly rejoice in the pruning process as we understand He is building His character with us.
"Character has been defined as a convictional belief that results in consistent behavior. We can see that character begins internally (a convictional belief) and is expressed externally (consistent behavior). Our internal character will be soon in our external lifestyle.
"God is stamping His image upon us so that we might be examples of Him to the world, and be able to fulfill his purpose for our lives."
-The Principle of Christian Character
"America's Providential History"