Deciding to Trust

By Dalton Cole, high school and Marjorie Foerster Eddington

Question

By nature, I am a trusting person, but I don't want to be taken advantage of. So how do you know who to trust?

Answer

In my life, I have expressed a great deal of trust. Everywhere I go, I am always smiling and always trusting people. And I have been taught to be truthful and good, to be loving and nice.

But everything in life is not a nice fairy tale with a gum drop forest. Unfortunately, you cannot trust everyone in the world. If you do, you are probably going to be used and hurt. The world can be mean, and we need to know who we can trust and who we should avoid. So many people are wearing masks, acting fake, and not being real. So we have to get to know people before we trust them.

If we put our trust in people, we might get messed up. But if we put our trust in God, only good can happen because God is good. And we can always trust in good.

The story of Job in the Bible has given me inspiration about trust. Job trusts God and expresses godliness in everything he does. But Satan thinks that Job will lose his faith in God if everything good is taken away from him. God has so much faith in Job and knows how much Job cares about God that He accepts Satan's bet. God allows Satan to destroy whatever he wants, but tells him to keep Job alive.

At first, Job gets very confused, but he never gets angry at God or blames God. He knows that only good could really end up happening. So Job's four best friends give Job their advice. They start getting angry at Job, blaming him and telling him he must have done something absolutely horrible for God to put this plague on him. Job gets very mad that even his good friends can't cheer him up or give him good advice when he's in need of it.

But Job decides to pray for his friends. He feels no hate for anyone. He only feels love. Job prays for his friends who couldn't see beyond the problems. Job, on the other hand, still trusts God. Then, Job gets his whole life back and then some.

So what I understand from Job's story is that if I start praying for the world, and not just myself (like Job did with his friends), I will find that true sense of happiness with everything -- even more than I already do. That's why I like Job and try to be like him. I always put a lot of trust in God. I have had too many healings not to trust the Father.

To me, trust is a great quality to have. But trusting also means that we have a responsibility to stop worrying only about ourselves and to start making a difference to everybody in the world by praying for everyone.

Dalton Cole, high school

Editor's Note:
When we start praying for others, we're really praying to see behind the masks. We're praying to see the guy or girl that God created. That can only help us and others. When we're so clear that the person we're talking to or thinking about is God's image, we'll be able to see the "real" person. And if the person's wearing a "mask," we'll be able to know. The mask will become obvious. We'll be able to tell if we should trust someone or not. That's because we've placed our trust in God. When we trust God, God guides our every step, our every word, our every thought and action.

MFE