I was walking around campus with a friend the other day when I realized I was so glad she was in my life. I turned around, looked at her, and told her, "I appreciate your existence".

Now, you have to understand that it is not out of character for me to do things like that. When I was younger, I had all of these compliments I wanted to give to people, but I couldn't because people would say, "You can't say that to a guy! People will think you have a crush on him!" or "You can't say that to a girl! Everyone will think you are fake!"

It was placed in my head that refraining from compliments was OK. Not saying what was on my mind was OK. After all, it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t compliment someone. I didn’t know them, right? So what difference does it make what a stranger says?

I’m going to escalate things and say, what if Jesus thought that way? What if He had thought, “It doesn’t really matter if I go down and tell them I love them. After all, they might just give me weird looks. It won’t make them love me back. It won’t really feel good if they don’t accept my compliment”. Please, just think about that for a second. Honestly, He didn’t have to come down and save us. Really. He probably knew we would reject Him. Somewhere though, in His immense glory and love He said, “But it matters. It absolutely matters”.

Didn’t Jesus tell us to love each other as He loved us? If He didn’t back away from giving a huge compliment, why should we back away from small ones? In a similar way as when people say, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all” I want to say, “If you have something nice to say don’t keep quiet. Tell them. Don’t be afraid. Say it all”.

If you are worried about what they might think, just say, “I don’t mean anything other than what I am about to say, but…” and go right ahead and compliment them. There is nothing better than when a stranger compliments you. Friends sometimes forget to, and when a stranger takes their time to tell you something nice, it really stands out.

So yes, I vow to always say the compliments that come to mind because I want to show people that complimenting others, loving others, respecting others is not something we should be afraid of. If you got to the end of the article and you are thinking, “no one randomly compliments me” let me just tell you, you are a wonderful fantastic human being. I know I don’t know you, or maybe I do, but you are worth it, you are wonderful, you are important. Jesus thought so. I promise you, you existing is not a mistake. And yes, I think you reading this, and me saying it is absolutely important.