This post is part of my October humility project. Some readers and personal friends wanted to follow me on a goal I set myself of spending October reflecting on and practicing humility. This is the second challenge to guide me, the first you can read here. Here’s what I’m doing today:

Aspect of humility

Acknowledging the good that is in me and is done through me.

What am I reflecting on today

These words of St Therese of Lisieux, from her autobiography, Story of a Soul:

It seems to me that if a little flower could speak, it would tell simply what God has done for it without trying to hide its blessings. It would not say, under the pretext of a false humility, it is not beautiful and without perfume, that the sun has taken away its splendor and the storm has broken its stem when it knows that all this is untrue.

What I am doing today

I’m naturally repulsed by the thought of ‘celebrating’ myself and my achievements – at least for anything bigger than cooking a nice meal! That I will rave on about to anyone who will listen for the next few days (it doesn’t happen that often by the way!)

But for anything bigger, like when I get a really nice compliment about the way my husband and I are raising our children, or something I’ve written, my first reaction is that the person is just being kind or flattering me. But when I think about it, isn’t that kind of insulting to the person, to me, and to God who made me who I am?

Other times if I can tell the person is not only kind but really sincere in his or her compliment, then the only way I can accept it is with the thought that it’s not much to do with me. That if there’s any good come from me it’s because God in his kindness has arranged it to seem that way.

That sounds holy doesn’t it, but it usually tips into what St Therese refers to as false humility. While I’m never going to get a big head, I often go too far in the other direction of thinking badly of myself.

The challenge for me, and what I’ll be doing today is spending a bit of time thinking about how often I (unfairly) denigrate myself and the good things that I do or have done. I need to remember that when I do this, I am actually denigrating things has God has done for me and is doing for me. I am not letting my light shine, as Jesus said we should do.

• The photo above is of a lovely card I received last week from a reader of my weekly column.