I gave my young friend Justice a compliment the other day when we were working on a jigsaw puzzle together. She replied with a comment to the effect of, “I’m not really that good at it.” I gave her two more compliments on how great of a jigsaw puzzle solver she was (which she is – so much quicker to see where the pieces go than I am). She gave both of those compliments back to me as well. How many times do we all give compliments back? “That’s such a pretty sweater.” “Oh, this old thing? I just grabbed it out of the closet.” “Those brownies are delicious.” “Not really, I cooked them a little too long.”
I looked at Justice and I said, “I feel sad and a little hurt.” She wanted to know why and I said, “Because you are giving my present back to me. A compliment is a gift, and when you give it back to me, it says that you don’t like my gift.” She thought for a minute. I then said, “Next time I give or someone else gives you a compliment, just try saying ‘thank you’.” She did. And then she did again. And then we were both smiling because it felt better. The gift was given and happily received.
