Trust is an amazing thing. We take it for granted too much, but trust is something that must be given. It is something that must be earned. Like many things, it is also difficult to rebuild after it is broken.
By definition, trust is “confidence in and reliance on good qualities, especially fairness, truth, honor, or ability.” If we are going to develop any relationship, there must be trust.
A marriage relationship is a perfect example of where trust must be built and protected. I was once young, stupid, and selfish (the difference now is that I’m older and hopefully less stupid and less selfish). A few months after my engagement to my wife, I let stupidity and selfishness take over. It was enough to break the trust she had in me. It was not completely shattered, but it was severely wounded. She regained enough trust to continue with the engagement and we were married the next spring. The trust was not completely rebuilt or healed – not even today. There’s still a scar that was left from that time.
Trust is not only needed in a marriage relationship, it is needed on a team at work. It is needed when you are teaching or training (discipleship) someone. You must be able to trust each other if you are going to be successful.
Trust is precious
Trust cannot be taken. Trust is not automatic. Trust must be earned. Trust is given.
When you trust someone, you make yourself vulnerable. You open yourself up to that person. You can feel comfortable and confident that the person will not take advantage of your open, vulnerable position.
Trust is powerful
Trust can be so powerful that it may cause someone to do things that are irrational or illogical. People will do things simply because someone they trust asks them to.
Proverbs 3:5 says: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” God desires that we trust Him so completely that we will go even beyond our understanding: into His understanding. When God told Joshua to march around Jericho, it made no sense; but Joshua and the Israelites trusted God, and the victory came.
Trust is priceless
There is no price that can be placed on trust. It is something that must be protected. It will take work to protect the trust that others have placed in you. But, believe me, it is less work to maintain trust than to rebuild a broken trust.
Sadly, trust is one of those things that you don’t realize that you have, until you lose it.
Questions: What are your thoughts about trust? Have you broken the trust that someone gave you? Has someone broken your trust?
Trust is crucial to most everything I can think of. Proverbs also says that ‘a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.’ That’s trust too.
I will try not to go long here…:) but trust is a great topic for everyone.
I’ve had people break my trust in them, and that’s hard as I’m normally a very….patient person. (Takes a lot to tick me off to the point of ‘I break things off with you.’ ) But I’ve had people move me there. I don’t like it, and I don’t like them.
Have I broken trust? Sure. I’m human. When I was a kid I went on a stupid stealing stuff phase. Even from my dear Grandma. (Sheesh….28 years later that still feels awful to say outloud…) but man, I sure felt worse than dirt when I got found out, and discovered that trust had been lost with my parents and my Grandma. It took a long time to earn it back. But I worked for it, because as you sooooooo rightly say: you never know how important trust is until it dies.
Maybe I said nothin…but yeah…trust really matters no matter where you want to apply it. (Home, kids, marriage, work….you name it, you need it to succeed. )
Thanks for your comments, Aaron! Always a pleasure to read them. Just thought of another picture: if you break a vase, it’ll never be the same even if you get all the pieces back together. It’s much easier to break next time, too.