The Topic of Trust

What is trust? Be definition it is a firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing. Something committed into the care of another; charge. So, the question I have is why do we trust? Why do we place a “firm reliance” on other people?

Most of the time when we trust in others we get hurt; thus bringing me to the topic of why we allow ourselves to trust others. We give someone our all, we trust them, and we get used, abused, and tossed aside. Or maybe we trust someone with our feelings or emotions and reveal something that is personal and this person we place our trust in betrays us by not being respectful of our feelings and broadcasting them to others. We put trust into people but in the end they only look out for themselves and then we feel like we have been stabbed in the back.

Based personal experience with trust there are two types of people; one is the giver and one is the taker. The giver trusts the taker and therefore they give all they are and they hope that the taker will become a giver one day and provide back to them. But what happens is the taker just takes and takes and never gives and eventually the giver can’t give any more. They have hit rock bottom and feel completely empty because they can’t give any more. The giver either has anger built up inside because they feel used by the taker or they feel the other extreme where they feel like a failure because they can’t give any more and they feel like they have let the taker down because they can’t go on any more.

If we know deep down that if we trust in other humans we get hurt or let down then why do we continue to trust? Is trust an emotion that is tied to each of us and therefore we can’t just not trust? People probably have levels of trust; someone like myself probably trusts people way too much and therefore I feel hurt and pain time and time again where others my not allow themselves to trust anyone because they know inside they don’t want to get hurt so they look out for themselves by limiting trust.

I always told myself that it takes trust to gain trust. If I trust others then they will trust me and no one will get hurt. But the more I think about that I feel like it is a lie. If I trust others and I think they trust me, then I get hurt by trusting them because they betray me, then I feel even worse because I feel like I allowed myself to get hurt by not guarding my heart, my emotions, and my feelings.

I guess people are people. I hate to say that often we can’t trust others because it is our human nature that makes us no where near perfect and therefore we are going to let other people down. I often wonder why I trust humans more than I trust God. He is really the only one who has complete control over my life and I should be willing to trust Him more than anyone else because He is not going to purposely hurt me; but yet somewhere inside I feel like I can’t even trust Him.

Today’s conclusion trust = hurt.