Trust

Those people who have had a vulnerable and intimate talk with me, might at some point, have heard me say I don't give trust freely and I don't trust many people.  My reasoning for these statements revolve around having been hurt in the past.  After reading about the Principle of Trust, I found myself having an "ah ha' moment.  One statement that hit me hard says, "Trust, then, is the recognition of the Divine in someone else.  Ultimately, that is what your are trusting:  their higher self."  I immediately felt a wave of sadness wash over me after reading this statement.  I have always considered myself to be a faithful person.  I believe we are all made in the image and likeness of God.  Believing this would naturally lend itself to being a trusting and trustworthy person.  Clearly, I have a lot to learn in this area as I have never put trust and faith in the same category.  It is true, if you truly trust someone, you are recognizing them as having an innate quality of goodness.  The opposite of goodness is evil.  How can I go about not trusting people believing they are evil. That is just ridiculous.  I would never think that but that is essentially what I've been saying in not so many words. 

Since reading about the principle of trust, I have been doing some personal reflecting and have been having conversations with friends about the idea of trust to help me process the overall concepts.  I have some work to do.  "I have a choice!" says the author, "Bad things may happen but do the good thing anyway.  People may disappoint you, but choose the higher road anyway...You have a choice to make about how you approach things.  Do you choose to trust or not to trust?"  I want to choose trust.  I will begin to realign my thinking and feeling so that it matches what I say I believe.  I want others to see me as a trustworthy person and thus I want and need to trust others.  After all, the majority of people in this life are filled with goodness, not evil.