Accepting Compliments

Why don’t we feel we deserve praise or recognition when we do something right or good? Why do we feel we’re not worthy? Have we been pushed down so much throughout our lives that we can’t believe that someone would want to lift us up? Have we sinned so grievously in the past that we can’t grasp the meaning of forgiveness and therefore can’t accept the offer of encouragement? Have we been brought up believing that having pride, even in our accomplishments, is so wrong that we dawn this sense of false humility to counteract the lure of egotism?

 

I guess it’s only fair if I answer these questions for myself.

 

For me I think the question, “Have we sinned so grievously in the past that we can’t grasp the meaning of forgiveness and therefore can’t accept the offer of encouragement? “ pretty much sums it up for me.  Self -forgiveness is so hard.  It’s difficult knowing that I have caused so many people so much pain in the past.

 

I think sometimes I get so used to carrying the weight of sin that I don’t allow myself the freedom of love… the freedom of acceptance… the freedom of encouragement.

 

I need to remember though that through Christ I am worth something and I am worth acceptance and I am worth love, giving it and receiving it.

 

Awhile back I wrote the following, I just need to remember it:

 

“He loved me to pieces. He tore down my walls of anger, jealousy, bitterness and hate. He took all my denials, all my betrayals, all my sins and cast them away from His mind. He took all my pain, all my hurts, all my tears and touched them with His grace. He took all my abilities, all my talents, all my strength and blessed them with His hope. He took all my insecurities, all my wants and needs, all my dreams and placed each little morsel at the feet of His Father.

 

He loved me to pieces... so that He could love me to peace.”

 

1 Corinthians 15:10 (ESV) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

 

I am worthy, through Him, of accepting compliments.