Last night, at the women's Bible study I have been attending on Thursday nights, we started out with a question about compliments. We were asked, "What is the biggest compliment someone has ever paid you, or the one that has stuck with the most"? Someone said it was being told she was a reliable worker by a boss that didn't often compliment, another said it was hearing her husband say that life was better with her in it, and another had been told she was wholesome and winsome. I said someone had once asked me if I had royal blood? (Not that I know of!)
When we had finished, the facilitator commented that as we answering she realized just how much each of the compliments were a direct aspect of God's character and therefore, something we can turn back in praise to Him. It was interesting to look at compliments in this light and to realize that a true compliments is always a reflection of God in our lives. It is a sort of evidence that we are representing God in the world. Just as it brings joy to my heart to hear my children praised, or to hear that they look like me or their dad, it must bring so much joy to God's heart to see His children representing Him well to the world.
Why then it is sometimes difficult to receive compliments? Often I think it is because we don't feel like we deserve it, because we don't see ourselves in the correct light. When someone compliments, it highlights character, kindness, helpfulness, joy, beauty, organization, whatever it may be and those things are of God. I was convicted not to shrug them off so quickly, but instead to turn them back to praise to God and be encouraged that the fruit of the Spirit is evident in that area of my life.
It made me more aware of the need to compliment those around me, as 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing". I went away encouraged and thankful last night. What about you? How would you have answered?
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