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False Glory (megd el batal)

marmar357marmar357
edited February 2011 in Personal Issues
Hi everyone,

What must u do if u are often getting compliments and people think u are good, while you actually don't deserve it?
However I am a servant in the sundayschool, I am absolutely not an angel, and I really don't like it if tasony
is continually giving my compliments and saying: "I am so happy to have u in class, you always help us with everything,
you do this and that and also abouna received the 'news'. Okay, it's kind of her that she loves me,  but that I am helping a bit in the sundayschool and give lesson doesn't mean I am "Their sundayschool- servant- angel", and I don't know what to say if she says that if she asks another servant to do something, that they often are lazy or don't have time. I understand that they don't have time, because they are in college and I am going 2 college next year, so probably I also won't have much time next year for serving. I am just lucky that this year God is standing me by and give me more time for serving in church.

Also, they don't know me. They think I am 'good', but I am actually bad, and a weak girl, bad thoughts, too sensitive. Am not going to confess my sins here, lol, but in spite of being kind to people and trying to help them as much as possible, I feel I am the last one who deserve these treatment.

So, HOW do you avoid False glory (megd el batal)? What must I say when someone makes me a compliment? I am afraid that I will lose my reward in heaven...and only GOD knows my heart. Even my dad doesn't know me 100%.
The only one who knows my weakness is the Lord, and I wonder how HE is looking at me..

Any advice or help would be appreciated.

Tomorrow the lesson is up to me again. Please pray for God's Holy Spirit come upon me.

Please, pray for me and my weakness, and that I am going to serve GOD's children with ALL my heart.

God bless all.

Comments

  • yousiegtennisyousiegtennis
    I have the same exact problem.
  • marmar357marmar357
    [quote author=GODlovesme link=topic=10646.msg129763#msg129763 date=1296932496]
    I have the same exact problem.


    Fine, another one who has the same problem. Hope people can help us.
  • yousiegtennisyousiegtennis
    Well...here's the thing...I talked to my FOC about this and what he told me was this:

    He said that these compliments may lead a person to have pride and so essentially, you need to think of yourself as the lowest person.  I know my faults and my weaknesses and I should be thankful that God has not revealed them to others, that He has covered my sins.  That is the kind of mentality you should have.  It's true, you and God are the only ones who know you better than anyone else.  Also, you should theoretically try not to be affected either by the compliments or by insults.  There is a nice story from the desert fathers in which a monk asked St. Macarius how he should respond to insults and compliments.  So, St. Macarius told him to go to the graves of the saints and insult them; he did that and when he came back, St. Macarius asked him if anything happened and he said no.  So, St. Macarius told him to go back and compliment them and tell them how great they were.  Again, the monk went and gave them all the compliments he could give them and came back to St. Macarius.  When the monk told St. Macarius that nothing happened again, he told him he should be the same...he should neither react to insults nor to compliments.

    Hope that helped a little.  Maybe someone can give a better answer.
  • marmar357marmar357
    [quote author=GODlovesme link=topic=10646.msg129766#msg129766 date=1296933174]
    Well...here's the thing...I talked to my FOC about this and what he told me was this:

    He said that these compliments may lead a person to have pride and so essentially, you need to think of yourself as the lowest person.  I know my faults and my weaknesses and I should be thankful that God has not revealed them to others, that He has covered my sins.  That is the kind of mentality you should have.  It's true, you and God are the only ones who know you better than anyone else.  Also, you should theoretically try not to be affected either by the compliments or by insults.  There is a nice story from the desert fathers in which a monk asked St. Macarius how he should respond to insults and compliments.  So, St. Macarius told him to go to the graves of the saints and insult them; he did that and when he came back, St. Macarius asked him if anything happened and he said no.  So, St. Macarius told him to go back and compliment them and tell them how great they were.  Again, the monk went and gave them all the compliments he could give them and came back to St. Macarius.  When the monk told St. Macarius that nothing happened again, he told him he should be the same...he should neither react to insults nor to compliments.

    Hope that helped a little.  Maybe someone can give a better answer.

    Thanks, your FOC is right. I shouldn't be affected with them.
  • childoforthodoxy
    Is it possible that God is sending you a message to start working on your weaknesses, confessing them openly to your father of confession, and correcting the things that you feel make you out to be not a "good" person? Maybe we shouldn't try so hard to avoid compliments if they make us realize our weaknesses. Change, not so that the compliments have truth to them, but to glorify God and further your relationship with Him.

    Childoforthodoxy
  • marmar357marmar357
    [quote author=childoforthodoxy link=topic=10646.msg129775#msg129775 date=1296938975]
    Is it possible that God is sending you a message to start working on your weaknesses, confessing them openly to your father of confession, and correcting the things that you feel make you out to be not a "good" person? Maybe we shouldn't try so hard to avoid compliments if they make us realize our weaknesses. Change, not so that the compliments have truth to them, but to glorify God and further your relationship with Him.

    Childoforthodoxy


    I have no idea, maybe..

    thank u Gb
  • Pharaoh714Pharaoh714
    It is best if you re-direct the Glory to God.


    Friend:  Hey " (fill in your name) "  you are so humble/good/caring/sweet/giving/trustworthy/loving I could not have done this without you.

    You:  Thank you, but Thank the Lord for He is my teacher and He taught me to do what is good.
  • joegjoeg
    Avoid the glory by simply ascribing it to God. Because that's who the glory belongs to anyway - any "glory" you may have "earned" was thanks to Him - it's not your glory, it is God's.

    "I will give you an analogy that will explain this matter to you: It is like a person who stands on the waters of the sea looking at the sun in the sky above, held aloft by means of its rays. If he removes his gaze from the sun, which is holding him aloft by means of its rays, and looks at the waters he treads upon, will he not sink because he has turned his gaze from the heights of the sun that holds him aloft by means of its rays? What will happen to him to him because he has disobeyed the sun who says to him, 'Do not look at the waters nor cease gazing at me; it is not you holding yourself aloft but my rays'? So too it is with the person whose view is united with God, who seeks always the glory of God: he tramples underfoot all human glory. But if he turns toward human glory, he falls from the glory of God and his sight. He defiles himself by means of a multitude of different passions so that in the end he sinks with all his cargo"

    St. Macarius the Great, Four desert fathers: Pambo, Evagrius, Macarius of Egypt, and Macarius of Alexandria: Coptic texts relating to the Lausiac history of Palladius, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9JJO6bjknvIC&source=gbs_navlinks_s

    EDIT:

    Exactly what Pharaoh714 said  :)
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