Cartoon of three boys. One is acting cool. Another boy says, “He’s been that way ever since the teacher praised him for his clean desk.”

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
       but man is tested by the praise he receives. Proverbs 27:28 (NIV)

Some people like to puff up when they get some praise, don’t they? You can complement someone on the way they look or something they just did, and the next thing you know, their head won’t fit through a doorway.

I have the opposite problem. I have to be careful not to give off a false sense of humility. Someone can praise me, and I’ll say, “Oh, it’s nothing. In fact, it’s pretty lousy. Why a kindergartner can do that! Think nothing of it!”
What am I doing? The guy just told me I did a great job and then I insult his judgment? A simple “thank you” would have been better.
I’m working on being humbly grateful for praise. I don’t need my head to become the size of a hot air balloon, nor should I pop the balloon of the person giving me a complement. Somewhere in the middle is just fine, thank you.
I drew this comic in Adobe Illustrator CS2