This has been a bee in my bonnet for a while, and since theology is open to no holds barred theology again, I thought I might as well throw it out there.

What are your thoughts on accepting the praise of others for things about yourself? Should you refuse the praising and instead forward it on with "all glory to God" in the subject line, or should you graciously accept the kind comments with the remembrance that God is the Author of it? (i.e., praise for your talents, character, creations, etc.) Hear me out for an example -

I have an amazing cousin who does a lot of stuff for our church. She can sing incredibly, and she has often spoken messages at church that I am truly inspired by. However, should anyone ever commend her, she brushes it off before it has a chance to land, saying quickly, "It's all God." As much as I love her, and as much as we all know God is the giver of gifts, I find this kind of response hurtful since I feel like I am unable to encourage her or uplift her in the way God wishes us to build up each other.

People say that they want the kind of humility that allows others to see God straight through them like a window, without seeing them at all. However, I respectfully disagree. Though the purpose of a teacup is to drink tea from it, that does not mean you cannot admire the vessel that carries it.

This being the case and direction my thoughts have taken to pondering, I now find myself at a loss if I am commended by family or friends on anything I do. I open my mouth to reply, and my brain pulls both ways - "It's all God" or "Thankyou, God is good"? Is this a tug-of-war between pride and humility, or am I missing a key here?

Care to share your thoughts, or express your opinions? I'd love to hear them.

I'm for a "thank you" or sometimes a "thank you, God is good". I don't think it's prideful at all to accept a positive compliment! Whenever people compliment me, it really makes my day. God gave you talents, and everybody has different talents, so why not take the time & appreciate others' talents?

Like many things, I think it's a balance. You, as God's child, can't claim the good things people see in you as your own (as in, fruits of your own efforts and goodness), but God's. Yet...they're still you, and the compliment should still touch you. I like the way you put it that God is the author of it, because He really is. I think a good response would be to say something along the lines of "thank you, God's been working in me", or "praise God", or something like that, depending on context.

My opinion? Well, if you have time, you can go into more detail about why you don't think this has anything to do with you, but for a short thing, thank you is nice. Some sort of comment about God in there is fine. But please, don't tell me that whatever I'm complementing you on has nothing to do with you and is all about God. It's really annoying. And it really doesn't encourage people to say positive things, which is kind of bad. Also, while God may be the one who gave you that talent/ability/whatever... It's still yours now. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, and usually had at least something to do with however good you are at whatever. But I don't have any good theological argument either way, though.

I'm very clumsy at receiving compliments in general, but I don't believe it's wrong to accept the comment with a simple, "thank you". Saying, "All the praise to God" or "The Lord is good" or "I'm thankful to the Lord" in response to compliments is glorifying God publicly, I don't think that's something that is necessary for every compliment you receive. As long as you are thankful in your heart I think that is what it comes down too. You can pass the glory to God publicly genuinely, but at some point I feel they just becomes automatic word responses without sincerity. Does that makes sense?

I'm pretty sure accepting a compliment gracefully with a simple smile and "thank you" will suffice in most situations.

~Calen

The Bible says on many occasions that we should encourage each other, and one of the ways we can encourage is to praise each other. While we need to know that the good in us is from God, we do not have to always bring this fact up, though we should live with this knowledge and refer to it when needed.

Reminding people that the good in us is from God seems mainly for special circumstances, such as if we feel a temptation to be prideful about the compliment, or if the person appears to be overly in awe of us, or if the honor is particularly big, or if we happen to feel nudged to by God’s Spirit.

Otherwise, we should assume the fact that our goodness is from God, revealed in a unique way in us, and if the other person is a Christian, they should assume this as well. With all this in mind, it’s generally best to accept praise with a humble “thank you” or something similar.

That. *nods*

Is it all God? Well yes and no. Keep in mind that God may lay on a persons heart to serve in a certain way or give them talents but it is that person that chooses to use them for His glory. This is actually the route I would go when a person seemingly rejects a compliment

Most of Romans 16 is Paul thanking and mentioning people who he wants to commend. It's not wrong to give people thanks, neither is it wrong to receive it graciously. You don't always have to mention God in your reply - God is looking at your heart; so if you're saying thank you and in your heart having the attitude of 'thank you, God, for working through me' that is all that matters to Him. He doesn't look on appearances, it's the heart attitude that He cares about.

People could have the outward appearance of humility, and always mention God in reply to thanks, but inside they might be feeling completely different; that is what God looks at. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with showing humility, but what I am saying is that God looks at the heart, not on what we are appearing to be on the outside.

I think about this a lot, and I actually believe (at the moment...I'm still not really sure about all my thoughts) that not accepting praise for ourselves in this way is theologically unsound.

You know why?

Because God made you.

When someone hates themselves, one of the things that everyone tries to show them is that they are amazing – in so many ways – because of who they are – because of who God made them to be. Do you think God likes it when one of his masterpieces is depreciated and it's beauties are ignored – even if it's done by the masterpiece itself?

I think that when I say 'Bushmaid is awesome', or 'Etcetera is so gentle and loving', or 'Katie did a great job organizing the Spec Fic blitz' – God likes it, as much as I like it when someone is looking at my picture and says how beautiful they think it is.

* smiles and tilts head * Wouldn't it, don't you think, be rather silly if, when someone says 'Look at how beautiful the deep, wide blue of the sky is,' you were to say, 'Oh, don't look at the sky – why are you talking about how beautiful the sky is? – it's God that is beautiful, you know, not the sky.'

Good thoughts, Juliet.

Love you, darling How well you put that! I've been meaning to come back and reply to this thread, and I think your example was perfect there, Juliet.

Excellent post, Juliet.

It reminded me of this...

(emphasis mine)
I think this also applies to how we should respond to praise. It's, I think, an outworking of what we actually think. If I think I'm useless, I'm more likely to brush off statements to the contrary... If I'm conscious of God's working in me though, I stutter, realizing I can't go with my normal deprecative procedure.

*just now saw this, smiles quietly*

I think, Juliet, that you've hit it spot-on. Because we are made by God, I think you're right, and He likes it when someone says something nice about one of His creations.

I never really thought of it this way before; then again, I never really thought about the subject much at all, as I'm one of those people who has a hard time accepting praise, for a variety of reasons.

But I do agree with what Juliet says. It all makes sense.

That said, I don't believe there's anything wrong with saying things like, "Thank you, God is good". The difference is whether you truly mean it, I think, or if it's just another way of getting out of agreeing or what-not because you still don't believe that you deserve the praise.

Anyway, yes, I agree 100% with what Juliet said.



And Juliet-dearie - thank you. You're very gentle and loving yourself too, you know. *smiles, hugs*

I'm loving this discussion!

I think the fear for some people is that to accept praise would look almost prideful. I think it probably depends in some way to what kind of character you are as well. I don't mind compliments, but it's easy to be embarrassed when they are given, whereas some people who are more outgoing might find it much easier to accept compliments.



Perfectly said, Juliet!