The best compliment

     What is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to you? Grocery stores that “card” until you’re thirty, with generous clerks that ask way after that, are kind but perhaps not the most important thing said to you! Along these lines, I read something by Charlotte Mason many years ago that profoundly affected not only my child-raising but also how I relate to all people.

      If I remember right, she talked about how we approach young children at church. Think about this—often we are quick to praise their clothes. And then she asks what will be the fruit of this affirmation in their life? In contrast, if we say to the child, “Oh what a lovely smile!” or “That was very nice of you to hug your brother!” or just “It’s good to see you!” what will be instilling in them? How will we be constituting them?

     Our children and our friends and our families and our church will be partially made by the thoughtful gifts we sacrificially offer to them through the power of the Holy Spirit—we are not self-sustaining. So in all our relations, even with the teenager at the fast food restaurant, we can we ask ourselves, “What is the best gift that I can give to this unique person?” “How can I affirm God’s image in them?” “What attentive question can I ask them?” Christ loved us with the best gift so that through his power we can offer the best gifts to others.