“For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”
Galatians 6:3 (KJV)
A STORY: THE RISE OF ADEKUNLE
In a small town not far from the savannah, there lived a man named Adekunle. From his youth, Adekunle was gifted with words. When he spoke, people listened. When he advised, matters settled. Elders nodded approvingly, and peers admired him.
At first, Adekunle carried his gift gently. He listened more than he spoke. He sought counsel. He doubted himself just enough to remain careful. But as time passed, praise began to surround him like air, constant, invisible, unquestioned.
“Only you can do this,” they said.
“No one thinks like you,” they repeated.
“Without you, we are lost,” they insisted.
Slowly, Adekunle stopped asking questions. He stopped checking his motives. He stopped listening deeply. Where reflection once lived, certainty took root. Where humility once guarded his strength, confidence began to harden into pride.
When mistakes appeared, they were explained away. When warnings arose, they were dismissed as jealousy. Adekunle did not become cruel, but he became unreachable. The same praise that lifted him had quietly isolated him.
Years later, when a decision failed and consequences arrived, the crowd grew silent. The praise that once spoke loudly now disappeared without explanation. Adekunle, left alone, faced a painful realization: he had learned how to hear applause, but not how to hear truth.
Praise is a powerful sound. It warms the heart, strengthens resolve, and can awaken hidden courage. Yet like a drumbeat played too loudly and too often, praise can drown out the quieter music of truth within the soul. When affirmation becomes constant and unexamined, it may no longer illuminate character, it may reshape it, sometimes subtly, sometimes dangerously.
Self-awareness thrives in balance. It grows where encouragement walks alongside correction, where honor is tempered by humility, and where applause does not replace conscience. Without this balance, praise, meant to strengthen, can slowly distort how a person sees themselves, others, and even God.
THE NATURE OF PRAISE AND PERCEPTION
Praise alters perception. It shapes the lens through which the self is interpreted. When external affirmation becomes the primary mirror, identity shifts from being to appearing. The self is no longer measured by truth, but by response.
True self-knowledge requires friction, questions that challenge, moments that humble, and silence that forces inward listening. Praise, when unbalanced, removes friction. It smooths edges that should remain sharp. It turns growth into performance.
Across cultures and generations, wisdom has warned that unexamined praise creates illusion: the illusion of infallibility, the illusion of permanence, and the illusion of self-sufficiency. A person praised without pause may confuse approval with truth.
THE EFFECT OF CONSTANT PRAISE
Praise conditions the inner life. When affirmation becomes excessive or unconditional, it can:
Reduce openness to feedback
Create dependence on external validation
Inflate self-concept beyond reality
Suppress self-correction
Increase fear of failure
The human mind adapts to reward. When praise becomes the reward, behavior shifts toward maintaining admiration rather than pursuing integrity. This is not always conscious. Often, it is subtle, an internal drift where approval becomes safety.
Healthy self-awareness depends on accurate feedback. Praise that ignores flaws does not protect confidence; it weakens resilience. When failure comes, as it always does, the praised mind may collapse because it was never trained to face limits.
THE DANGER OF PRAISE WITHOUT DISCERNMENT
Praise carries great weight. When directed toward humans without reverence for God, it can quietly replace divine authority with human applause.
Many lose sensitivity not through rebellion, but through admiration. The heart grows accustomed to being elevated and slowly forgets how to kneel. Prayer becomes performance. Service becomes identity. Calling becomes image.
Scripture repeatedly warns that pride often enters through the front door of success, not the back door of failure. When praise is not returned to its true source, it becomes a thief, stealing humility, gratitude, and reverence.
PRAISE AND THE EROSION OF LISTENING
One of the first casualties of distorted self-awareness is listening. Those constantly praised may begin to hear selectively, accepting affirmation while resisting correction.
Listening requires the courage to be unfinished. Praise whispers that one has arrived. Wisdom insists that one is still becoming.
When listening fades, relationships suffer. Leaders isolate themselves. Friends feel unheard. Communities lose balance. All because praise was allowed to speak louder than truth.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HONOR AND FLATTERY
Honor recognizes contribution while preserving humility. Flattery exaggerates value while ignoring responsibility.
Honor strengthens character.
Flattery inflates ego.
Honor invites accountability.
Flattery resists correction.
Honor points beyond the person.
Flattery traps the person within themselves.
A wise heart learns to discern the difference, and to receive praise without absorbing it.
RESTORING SELF-AWARENESS IN A PRAISED LIFE
Self-awareness can be restored, even after distortion. It returns through deliberate practices:
Seeking honest voices, not admiring ones
Embracing silence and reflection
Welcoming correction without defense
Remembering one’s beginnings
Returning praise to God
The mature soul learns to hold praise loosely, appreciating it without living in it. Like water in the hands, it refreshes but is not retained.
PRAISE AS A TEST, NOT A REWARD
Few realize this truth: praise is not proof of greatness, it is a test of character. It reveals what a person does when elevated, how they treat others when admired, and whether humility survives applause.
Those who pass the test of praise grow deeper. Those who fail it grow louder, but not wiser.
A QUIET TRUTH
The most grounded people are often those who could accept praise, but do not depend on it. They know who they are in silence. They remain the same when celebrated and when unseen.
They understand that applause fades, but character echoes into eternity.
CLOSING SCRIPTURE
“Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.”
Proverbs 27:2 (KJV)
Praise is not the enemy.
But unchecked praise is a mirror that bends truth.
And a bent mirror, no matter how beautiful, cannot show a soul its true face.
