I've never been good at accepting compliments. When someone says something nice about my hair or my parenting skills my reply is usually self-deprecating or dripping with sarcasm. 

I have a hard time just saying thank you. I know. I know. It isn't rocket science. 

My internal response to a compliment is either a feeling of pride, or else unworthiness. Those aren't the most appropriate responses. 

I've been bothered by this a while.

Accepting praise can be awkward. Even when I'm the one who's giving praise. By the reaction I get from people I brag on, I get the feeling I'm not the only one who doesn't know how to receive compliments unless it's just me that stinks at both receiving and giving them. 

This morning while getting my yearly check-up, a nurse named Kim reminded me how compliment receiving should work. 

Kim was great at the nurse thing. She was both knowledgeable and informative. But it was her ability to act professionally and treat me like a person (even like a new friend, maybe) that made me compliment her on my experience at Diagnostic Health. 

I waited for some weird exchange or a simple thank you, but she just said 

To God be the Glory

That's it. She didn't let me know that she's not so nice on Mondays. She didn't feel the sudden need to compliment me back with some empty impromptu observation about my earrings. 

And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." Isaiah 6:3

And so the conversation fell right where it needed to. 

Yes. To God be the glory. Even if Kim so happened to have lost her cool with a patient last week. To God be the glory that she blessed me this morning. I get the feeling she's a kind person, but even if she's not that nice a person when a waiter gets her order wrong, she still brightened my morning to the glory of God. 

The habit of passing off a compliment is wasted opportunity to give glory to God. 

So give a pat on the back. 

Receive accolades. 

Don't make a blunder out of a chance to recognize God's blessings. 

to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:21