Take a Compliment!

Whenever a man's friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old.
Victor Hugo

I'm not entirely sure what it is - I've philosophied about it with friends before, but I have this thing about compliments. I think I've gotten better. I try to be very gracious when I receive them, not say stupid things and all - but I have this general feeling, much like Hugo's quote above, that there maybe two sides to the coin.

I mention this because I received a compliment from the sound guy Saturday after the wedding I officiated. He said I did a good job. I'd actually been extremely hot and messed up slightly on both of their names early in the service. I did realize and corrected right afterward, but there seemed a few awkward moments, for me anyway. So, when the sound guy said "you did a good job" what I heard was "don't worry, it wasn't that bad." The funny thing of course, is that he repeated this to John (co-pastor at Liberty) and John repeated the compliment to me. I mentioned this to Bridgette on the way home from church Sunday, and she agreed that I need to stop distrusting people's compliments.

I think part of it happens to be a little "glass is half full" kind of thing. I have a general rule that I expect the worst and hope for the best - that way I don't get disappointed if bad things happen. Throughout my life - except for in sports - I feel like I've been blessed beyond my expectations. Of course, if you have no expectations...

Anyway, I share this because I've been reflecting on it and I'm curious to know if anyone else feels the same - or completely opposite of this. Do you always trust a compliment? Or are you of the "glad-handing" variety, where you expect that people just say that kind of stuff? I'm interested to hear...