The mother of my neice? You should get to know her.
She just posted about how women should not downgrade their abilities and such, which got me to a-thinkin:
How is down-grading different from humility? I will toot my horn for trivial things (I make an AMAZING black beans and rice, thanks for asking.) but I have a hard time not putting a bushel over attributes of meaning, lest I look like: a) a snot; or 2) a fool because it is proven that I was not as good as I thought. What is the balance between bravado and honest recognition?
(Or is bravado not bad at all? Lucky Red Hen is one of my favorite people because she has never seemed to have a problem with acknowledging her awesomeness. And she is completely awesome.) Is all pride too much? SO confused and head-spinny.
Does that make sense, or is it just too late for me to be typing? (I can't go to bed yet--W is doing the dishes and if I stop typing he will abandon them for me to take care of tomorrow.)
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Do you know my sister?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
I absolutely love the story about the woman with the cracked pot.
I'm going to chew on this some more today,
but off the top of my head I will say this:
I think you can and should--Go Shannon--acknowledge your own gifts and you can do so with gratitude for the source of those talents. It would be hard to develop our talents and use them for good if we failed at the very first to ackowledge they exist.
And if you acknowledge your gifts from a pure perspective you should be able to avoid looking like a snot (no one else is less good at something because you are good at it) and/or feeling like a fool (when we eliminate the need to compare we eliminate the need to prove anything, one way or the other).
I also believe it is a gift to be able to ackowledge other people's talents. After a few years into my role as wife and mother I sort of lost the rest of me. A little while later I was blessed to get to know my friend Jane, who has such a gift. She asked me a few questions about what I liked to do and I finally started to remember. And then she took it a step further. When she would introduce me to someone she would always say, "This is Dalene and she's a good..." I slowly started to believe her and I began spending some time developing and using my talents again.
The beauty of that was that as I started to remember the rest of me I think I became a better wife and mother (at least I hope so).
Everyone knows I have obnoxious bumper stickers on my car (front AND back) - mostly so I can recognize my car because my memory stinks and I can't remember where I parked. For Mother's Day, my 6yr old got me a sticker to add to the car.
YEAH DUDE I ROCK
I think that our confidence is built up more each time we agree with our complimentors. The more our confidence builds the better we get at it and we can share it with others.
Where would we be if Davinci didn't believe in himself? Armstrong the astronaut? Ghandi? All those other people that have been positive influences in our world?
I think President Hinckley could've added one more B to his list...
BE lieve.
I haven't met your sister and shall begin to know her by stalking her blog.
P.S. YOU are awesome!
I thought about this all day yesterday -- the fine lines between being a snot about it (my way is the best and only way), gracious gratitude (and, like cw said, acknowledging the source), and being just pathetic (someone who says, "I'm sorry," all the time).
It's about grace. I think.
I don't really know. That's why I'm eager to read more responses, so you fine people can tell me.
I have met your sister. She radiates beauty and grace. Love her. And you.
I spent last year learning how to take a compliment with grace. I shall use this year to not downgrade my abilities. I shall be ok with saying NO, even if it is a chance for me to use my abilities.
wow...wonderful comments from some awesome peeps!
You know what is helping me with this? Remembering that ANY abilities and attributes I possess have been bestowed upon me by a loving Father in Heaven. How ungrateful of me to not recognize this! I need not boast of any proud accomplishment of my own capacity. Just give humble thanks and recognition for any good or praiseworthy thing in my life having come from God. Putting this in to practice, of course, is a bit hard. It's very well worth the tedium, however. Try it right now! Work out some scenarios in your head and figure out a simple response that says nothing more than, "I'm honored that you would compliment me" "Yes, I do have talents! They're an amazing gift from God!!"
Wasn't this a fun little exercise? =) teehee
Now, try it again, only this time, no squriming. You don't have to be PERFECT at something or even FEEL good at it to recognize that it could be a chance for you to somehow glorify your Heavenly Father!
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Marianne Williamson
Yeah I really like this quote a lot-it is usually attributed to Nelson Mandela, but that is an untrue source. Anyway It's my favorite quote!
Post a Comment