My Compliments

The topic Stasha gave us for Monday Listicles this week is 10 Compliments.  Hmm... There are so many different ways to go with this one.  I'm just as bad as the next woman about taking a compliment gracefully.  Someone tells me she loves my hair and I respond with, "Ugh...it's entirely too thick and has a mind of its own".   Someone tells me I'm so creative or crafty or a good writer and I stutter and mumble something like, "Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that!"  

Why do we do this?  I suppose it's because most of us are taught the importance of being humble at an early age. Humility is an admirable quality after all, isn't it?  I know I place it at the very top of the list of character traits I value most. I mean, who enjoys being around someone who is constantly tooting her own horn and singing her own praises?  Nobody. It's obnoxious. 

But being able to smile and say, "Well, thank you!" when someone pays us a heartfelt compliment is not the same thing.  It's not only healthy but respectful to the person paying it.  Who knows how long it may have taken them to get up the courage to say it in the first place.  And admit it, even when you do have a hard time accepting a compliment or fully believing it yourself, it does make you feel good inside, doesn't it?  Of course it does. 

As I was trying to decide which way to go with this prompt I recalled a journal entry I wrote several years ago, back before I even knew what a blog was...Best Compliments I've Ever Received. Some of them I simply remembered and others I found written in some of the countless cards I've collected through the years. (I never, ever throw away a card...it's the one thing I will hoard forever!)

Here are are a few of the ones I found written there and a few I have since been given or since recalled... 

1. Your faith in God impresses me...you are an inspiration to me. This was written by someone in a card about a year into my journey with grief. 

2. I always knew you'd make a great mom, and I was right. Written in a card from my mother.

3. I will always remember that you were there for me when I needed you most. Written by my best friend.

4. You've amazed me anew. In a card from Darin in reference to my new role as a mother.  

5. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat animals. In response to my doting over a dog who was not my own.

6. You are the kind of young woman any mother would be proud of. In a card from one of my dearest friends, old enough to be my mother, who never had kids of her own.

7. You spoil us all. From Charlie..."All" meaning himself, the boys, the dogs... the guinea pig!  

8. You are funny/hilarious/crack me up!  I place a good sense of humor right up there with humility so to have someone tell me I made them laugh...snort, even!...makes my whole entire day week!

9. That was powerful. Being told this, or something similar, in reference to something I have written is enough to keep me going for weeks...maybe even months!  

10. This (insert any dish I've just cooked and fed to my kids here) tastes just like Momaw's!  It doesn't happen often but when it does?  I am a goddess in my own mind!   

Your turn.  Tell me one of the best compliments you've ever received.  Come on, I know you can do it!  Plus, I did ask.