What Does Trust Mean to You?

This week I was asked, to do a voice recording for a presentation on trust. The question posed was, ‘What does trust mean to you?’

At first I was like heck yeah. I can do that no problem, but it required much more thought than I expected.

It’s a word we use often, and really think that we understand what it means, but when asked to explain, the words don’t come as easily as you might think.

After some research I came across two definitions of the word trust. The first is the noun form:

trust
trəst/ 

noun 

1. firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.”relations have to be built on trust”

For many, myself included, this is where we go in our explanation of trust. We talk of the ideal, and how things should be.

It’s easy to say “good relationships are built on trust”. We all know it to be true.

Intimate relationships are created when confidence, belief and faith are present. Someone who has trust, is assured, convicted, has credence and is reliable.

We all want to be trusted, right? This is the ideal.
The second definition of trust, the verb,  is where I got to the heart of what trust means to me personally.

trust
trəst/ 

verb 

1. 1. believe in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of.”I trust him with my life”

Trust is certainly an ideal that we strive to achieve in our relationships, but it cannot be achieved if we don’t individually put it into action!

When we decide to rely on, depend on, bank on, or be sure of another, it takes a great deal of risk in many cases.

We all make mistakes.  God knows I’ve made some doozies over the last 40 years of my life, but there are still people in my life that have placed their trust in me. In some cases they took a big risk in doing so. I like to think that’s paid off for them.

So after much more thought than I figured I would need, I came up with my answer to the question”what does trust mean to you”:

Trust is a daily decision to give others the benefit of the doubt and believe their intentions are good. I strive to demonstrate to those who have placed their trust in me, that I am worthy of their confidence in my intentions and abilities.

This is not a blanket statement for all situations. There are evil people in this world that you should not be placing your trust in.  So be wise.  Use some discernment when it comes to trust.

Trust is a short word, but carries a lot of power behind it.

How do you define trust?

Share your thoughts and leave a comment below!

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