Trust
As children, we have a tendency to trust those who take care of us – more so when we were helpless (especially when we were infants & toddlers). It reminded me of the trust that my dogs of me – that I as their owner will love them, feed them & take care of them. Such that even when I get upset with them & punish them, they still trust me nevertheless, resolutely & totally. Even after giving them a whacking for barking or for being greedy & gobbling up food that I dropped, they still respond to me with endearing love.
Over time, as we grow & mature and face a variety of people, many a times, we find it difficult to trust others. Perhaps as children, we have grown numb to the empty promises made by our parents that if we were good, we’ll get this or that & if we scored well, we would get a holiday. Sadly, many parents instill a lack of trust in their children from a young age. Therefore, I’m very careful not to make empty promises to my nephew and try my best to deliver what I’ve promised – not just to him, but to everyone around me. I recall in my growing up years, many friends have given me empty promises that repeatedly broke my trust in them. So much so that I’ll know that certain people can’t be trusted & I attempted to do to them what they did to me. I passed that off as being street-smart.
When I started out working, I realised that I needed to be trustworthy, else it’ll affect those around me & thus worked at being trustworthy. There have been many times that I’ve been disappointed as others did not return that same characteristic to me. It became disappointment with people. I try to be consistent in all that I do & say and sometimes, I face disappointments especially with people who try to pass themselves off as friends but they keep questioning everything I do – my motives, my heart, my objectives etc. It’s quite tiring as a friend to share with others about that for everything I do. I’ve realised that many people are very skeptical about friendships & the intention of others.
The world would be a much better place should people learn how to trust others. As a believer, trusting others to me, is closely intertwined with us trusting God. If we trust God, then we should learn how to trust others. Even if others let us down (which may happen quite often), we need to trust that God has something in mind to have allowed this to happen. If we trust God, we will never be disappointed as we need to understand that God is in control & surrender to God our rights. It’s a lot easier said than done, but something that we have to do nevertheless – putting our faith before ourselves.
Therefore, the world will disappoint, even myself will disappoint others despite trying my best to honour what I say. It’s a lot easier to be consistent with what we say & do to everyone & be ourselves than living a life behind a mask. It’s very sad when people do not appreciate us for daring to be ourselves. Nevertheless, I’m thankful for the one who has never let me down (contrary to what I may view at times). I’m thankful that I’ve found a best friend in Jesus who’s always there for me all the time. I’m still growing in my trust in the Lord & pray that I’ll finish the race & fight the good fight victoriously!
