Receiving Compliments

For many various reasons, I am not good at knowing how to respond to compliments. It has come up a lot over the past couple of days, because I sang a little in chapel yesterday, and people have been giving me a lot of positive feedback. For the most part I just say, "Thank you" and let it pass. A few years back I used to protest or try to minimize myself, but I've grown out of that phase.

But this morning in one of my classes, someone just went on and on about how I had belted it out and blah blah blah, and I guess I didn't respond the way she wanted me to, because she said, "You don't like this do you?" And I said, "No, not really."

I would say that I can take affirmation from people I am good friends with, and it's not a big deal. But with someone who doesn't really know me on a personal level, I feel like if I agree with their compliment, and own whatever gift it is that God has given me, then I'm somehow being boastful.

I guess I find it hard to walk the line between not minimizing the gifts God has given me, and being able to be self-aware enough to know what my gifts are, but also realizing that I'm in a culture that (especially toward women) names that awareness as vanity or conceit.