Compliments

Compliments. I like them. I’ve had some great ones throughout my life and today was one of those special times.

“I like your hair down and your earrings look like the sparkling sun…shining!” one of my students gushed as she put her hand on my shoulder while we were reading.

I shared the reading time with one of my boy students as well. He echoed the girl’s thoughtful sentiments:

“Same.”

“Same” like you also thought my earrings looked like the sparkling sun? Or “same” like you enjoy this baseball book and can’t wait to read about the homerun?

Yea, I’ll go with the first one.

Two other humorous compliments are pickup lines I received a few years ago.

Once I was on my way to a job interview and the only professional-ish shoes I owned were four inch heals from a college dance. That made me six feet tall.

I walked down the city street with a quick little swagga to the interview, but caught the eye of a larger gentleman in a leather jacket who had both the authoritative look of a gang leader and the suave air of a ladies’ man. He gave me a sideways stare and drawled,

“Yo… I’m six four.”

He looked over his shoulder as I took a minute to hear what he said and we both laughed.

Another time, I was wearing a basketball t-shirt with the words “sixth man” on the back. I had just left the subway station when a young man brushed past me and asked just as smoothly, “Yo… can I be the seventh?”

Again, he checked with a backwards glance for my laughing approval of his cleverness.

Today I thought about what God might say as a pick-up line.

" Yo, I'm infinite." "Yo, I knew you before you were born." "Yo, I created love."

He's the ultimate compliment-er. Beyond clever, He speaks to the depths of my heart.

Maybe God would say  something like this, "These others are mere glimmers of my creativity, because I created them too. They are entertaining, albeit fallen reminders of your goodness and beauty. I gave you everything you have. I hold you in existence right now. And you are worth more than a casual comment on the street."

Another child in my class sang a song to himself yesterday. It went like this," I am awesome. I am awesome. I am awesome," in a rang of high and low notes depending on his decided emphasis.

He was reminding himself in an unconscious, silly, sweet way of his own worth.

Last year, I lived in a place where "God's Image" was written on all the mirrors. With the constant reminder, I began to see myself differently. I also realized how much I had allowed ugliness from the imperfect love I had received form my thoughts of worth.

 The Fall happened. And I wasn’t loved perfectly or even adequately at times. And I was insulted and ridiculed and worst of all ignored.

But slowly, I am learning that I can re-respect myself by unmasking the lies I’ve swallowed so I can live out of love instead. I can start recognizing in what ways I was formed by ugliness and gently remind myself that is not the truth of who I am. Over time this “self-love”--like "I am awesome"-- will replace any selfish, self-seeking love which is really love’s opposite – isolation.

In the Song of Songs, one lover calls to the other: “Arise my beloved, my beautiful one and come.” And God whispers to me: "Come, Be Loved." For only He can fully see me and show me who I really am.