A few years ago, a friend gave me a really lovely compliment. My response was to downplay it, and she asked me if I thought she was just saying it or that she really meant it. It was so different from how I viewed myself that even though I knew she was totally sincere, I was visibly uncomfortable with her statement.
Last year, I was talking to her about my experience with someone who couldn’t see the amazing and beautiful person she was; she felt ugly and it didn’t matter how many people told her otherwise. While we were talking, my friend asked me, “Do you remember what I once told you?” We’ve had a lot of long and deep talks but I immediately knew she was talking about the compliment she gave me, the one that I was visibly uncomfortable with because it didn’t match how I saw myself.
When I saw the following short video clip, I thought of this conversation with my friend. I thought about how we women are so hard on ourselves, how we don’t allow ourselves to see our true beauty, external or internal – it may be blatantly obvious to those around us but we too often don’t see it.
In this video, a police forensic artist does two sketches of the same woman- one as she describes herself, one as others describe her.
Avivah
HOW TRUE!! In a group we were just the other day discussing how we (as wives, and women) need to learn to accept graciously. Be it gifts or compliments. I have found that women tend to have a difficult time accepting a compliment at face value and we often deflect or negate it.(“oh THIS old skirt…”, “it’s my sister-in-law’s recipe….”, “actually I GAINED 5 ponds…”) By accepting whatever gift we receive we allow the giver to feel good as well! (This can cause a wonderful ‘vicious’ cycle’!) What a positive lesson we can model for our kids……
I showed this to my 17 year old daughter! Thank you for bringing it to my attention!