Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Issues of trust

Do you have a hard time trusting others? Does this interfere with your relationships? Perhaps you've been hurt by others who you've trusted in the past and as a result you made a vow to yourself (consciously or unconsciously) that never again will you allow yourself to trust. Maybe it's hard to actually follow through with this because we want so much to be able to trust and rest in relationship with others. Or maybe we've hardened our hearts and are constantly at war in our relationships because we struggle to trust. Perhaps we struggle with trust because the person we put our trust in is simply not trustworthy and yet we keep coming back and back hoping this time things will be different and we'll be safe to trust.

Putting our trust in others leaves us vulnerable. That vulnerability opens up painful feelings that we would prefer not to feel. If we don't trust, we say to ourselves, we don't have to hurt when that trust is broken. However living this philosophy often leaves us lonely and tired.

We need to be wise about who we will trust. There truly are people who are not trustworthy. Perhaps the issue to wrestle with is not so much can I trust others but can I trust myself - can I trust myself to know who is trustworthy and who is not? Can I trust myself not to put myself in relationships/situations that only lead to my harm?

What do you think? How do you struggle with the issue of trust?