T for Trust
7:17:00 PM
In his book
‘Winning with People’, Dr. John C. Maxwell describes relationships and trust
beautifully: “Relationships can also be described as being like a painting.
Trust is like the frame that surrounds it and holds it together. It provides a
context in which to view the work of art. Trust defines its boundaries. Trust
secures it to the wall so that it can be enjoyed. Trust provides emotional
structure.”
There can be no
relationship without trust. If it is true that love is the root of all
relationships then trust is the ingredient by which those roots can grow
deeper.
T-Trust
Many people find
it difficult to build and sustain healthy relationships today because their
trust was breached by someone earlier in their lives. They were cheated on and
perhaps betrayed by someone who used to be close to them. As a result they
build walls around them so that they wouldn’t have to go through the pain of
broken trust all over again. Broken trust creates fear in people.
In the movie
‘The Stepford Wives’, the wives in Stepford were systematically replaced by
robots that looked exactly like them. The husbands could count on precisely the
behaviour they wanted from their cyber spouses. No uncertainty. No frustration.
No need for trust.
Can you imagine
a spending your life with a robot? Life would become so predictable and boring
because the same thing would keep repeating itself.
Trusting someone
is like taking a journey with them. It opens us to learning new things about
ourselves and the other person. Trust honors the freedom, the dominion and the
dignity of the other person. Trusting people is allowing them to fail. Trust
opens the door for forgiveness, mercy and grace. It is the way to intimacy and
depth of a relationship.
There will be
uncertainty and frustration but over time just like the farmer who keeps adding
ingredients so that the plants would grow to yield fruit; we too would be able
to see the fruit which would be fulfilling.
Author Jack Frost said it well, “Basic trust does not mean the ability to believe or trust
one another. It is the capacity to hold your heart open to others, especially
if you believe another’s motives or intentions are not pure. Basic trust is
having an open heart. It is when you risk being vulnerable, even when it hurts
you to stay open and not to close your spirit. You are able to risk being
childlike again and receive love and nurture. Basic trust is foundational for
building healthy relationships.”
Take
Away Principle: If love is the root of all relationships then trust
becomes the ingredient by which those roots can grow. It helps us to discover
ourselves and the other person creating a way for intimacy and depth of the
relationship.
Tips
on trusting people:
1.
Trust yourself. You cannot trust others
if you cannot trust yourself. Come to terms with what your shortcomings are.
2.
Approach a person with an open mind. Don’t
judge them based on their past. If you want to trust someone, you must first
change your view/ perspective about them.
3.
Make yourself vulnerable. Give every
person the benefit of your trust. Trusting people is allowing them to fail.
8 comments
Great post, Danny. Trust is a delicate thing. When someone gives you their trust, you should treat it like a treasure.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to trust others. I guess it comes from being burned so many times in the past. Because of that, I hold myself distant from people. Occasionally the walls I build around myself begin to crumble and I will find someone that I want to trust so much...and then I am disappointed again and the walls go back up and another piece of my heart is chipped away once again. It is easy to giggle, and hide the sadness under a happy face most of the time.
ReplyDeleteIn our relationships, we keep trusting despite the earlier setbacks. As Maya Angelou said, have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.
ReplyDeleteI think trusting yourself is the hardest for me - and to my detriment. Only now, in my mid thirties am I beginning to trust myself, my instinct and what I know to be good and true. Ask my husband, I'm a better person for it!
ReplyDeleteTrust is very important aspect of life and relationship. I think I have gone by your 3rd point every time I have met a new person though faced setbacks in equal numbers. :-(..
ReplyDeleteJayanta
Totally with you on this one! The tips are great and practical, but need a lot of effort to practise.
ReplyDeleteYou're making me fall in love with Maxwell's quotes :)
ReplyDeleteVery true, just as we give someone the benefit of doubt, we should give him the benefit of trust too ! A relationship may sprout out of love, but it grows on trust, and if there's none of it, the relation withers away.
Loved your tips, as usual :)
I totally, completely and wholeheartedly agree with your 3 points. Very well stated.
ReplyDeleteCarol @ Battered Hope