By: Nancy Whitaker
Faith, trust; hope, confidence, love and attitude. These are all traits we all have, to an extent or should have. Sometimes we feel like we have lost all of them. It is easy to feel hopeless, faithless, distrustful and unlovable. I know because I have some of those days.
I happened to be reading something the other day which made me stop and think. The stories are , “Once upon a time, there was a dry spell and the villagers decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer all the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella. That’s faith!
When you throw a baby in the air, she laughs because she knows you will catch her. That’s trust!
We go to bed, without any assurance of being alive the next morning,but we still set our alarms to wake up.
That’s hope!
We plan things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future.
That’s confidence!
We see the world suffering, but we still get married. That’s love!
On an old man’s shirt was written a cute sentence. “I am not 60 years old. I am sweet 16 with 44 years of experience. That’s attitude.!
I always say that I trust nobody but God.
I do recall, however, when men could shake hands and make a deal. There were no written contracts.
Even customer service reps on the phone, who speak with a foreign voice, makes me leary to give out a bank card number.
Trust me …. yes I said “trust” It just is not safe to hand out your personal details unless you are absolutely sure of whom you are speaking .
I get numerous calls telling me to send $50 and I could get a free trip to the Bahamas. But, do we really get anything free now-a days? M
Okay. We all like to take a chance on buying a lottery ticket and hope to strike it rich. Now. I am not saying you won’t win, but personally I would not spend any lottery money until I had it safely in my pocket.
Yes, I know we should have faith, but there are just some things that even faith won’t win for you. I remember my sweet old Mama. One time I went to Atlantic City gambling. (Yes I did)
Then I got busy putting money in the one armed bandit and all of a sudden the bells started ringing, lights were blinking and everyone had their eyes on me.
I was scared to death, because I had won $700 and I think everyone in the casino knew I had won.
Since I did not trust anyone, I went to my hotel room and stayed there until we flew out the next evening. I did not want to get robbed. I was also frightened on the airplane, because I thought everyone looked like the Mafia and was going to hold me down and take my winnings. (I guess I did not have much faith or trust at that time)
Well I made it home with my winnings and I gave my Mama some money to give to the church as tithes.
She was very happy to get the money for the church, but she went up to the platform and said, “Oh preacher. Pray over this money. It is dirty money because my daughter won it gambling”.
Well, God must have listened to them, because the church was happy to receive the funds and did not seem to care where it came from.
Kids believe in Santa and they have faith and trust he will come and leave toys. In fact, they have so much faith, they even put out cookies and milk for him to eat.
Which brings to mind another story: There grew a big tree on the seashore. Half of its branches were over the land and the other half over the water. A little monkey lived in the tree. He played in the branches all day and when he was hungry, he ate the sweet fruit that grew in the tree. Now, in the sea there lived a shark.
One day the monkey threw some of the fruit into the sea. The shark ate it up.
From that day on the shark and the monkey were friends and the shark asked the monkey to throw some fruit down to him every day. (sneaky shark I sure would not have trusted him)
“Thank you, friend monkey,” said the shark, “I have only fish to eat in the sea and I like your fruit very much.”
The monkey was so happy to be the sharks friend.
The Monkey looked down at the shark and listened. The Shark said, “I want to show you my home. You will meet my brothers and sisters. You are so good to me that I think they will like you.”The Monkey thought a minute and said, “No, I don’t want to go. Thank you. I am afraid of cold water. And I cannot swim. I shall be happier if I stay in my tree.” “Oh, no, no!” said the Shark. “Don’t be afraid! Come with me. I shall carry you to my home on my back. I shall not swim very quickly.” The Monkey thought, “The day is very hot. It will be nice on the water. I think I’ll go.” So the Monkey sat down on the Shark’s back. And they went off. At first the Monkey did not like going on the Shark’s back, because the Shark swam very quickly. But soon he liked it and looked at the new places and at the fish in the water. It was so interesting! “Do you like the sea?” asked the Shark. “Is the sea better than your forest? “Yes, it is. How far must we go?” asked the Monkey.
“It is not very far,” the Shark answered. “And now I must tell you something. Our chief, the biggest shark in the sea, is very ill. Our doctor said to him, ‘You must eat a monkey’s heart. Then you will be well again.’ So I am taking you to him and I am telling it to you, because you are my friend.”
The poor Monkey was ready to cry. But he did not cry. The Monkey thought of a plan to save himself. Then he said, “How silly you are! Why didn’t you tell me that before? I have no heart with me. It is at home, in the branches of a big tree. We Monkeys always hide our hearts in the branches of big trees in the daytime. We take out hearts only at night. What will you do if your chief finds that I have no heart? How angry he will be? I am ready to give my heart to your chief, because I am your friend. But how can I do that when I have no heart with me?” The Shark asked the Monkey, “If I take you back to your tree, will you go and get your heart?” “Of course, I will. And let us go quickly. Your dear chief must not wait!” The Shark with the Monkey swam back very quickly. They came again to the big tree. The Monkey climbed up the tree saying, “Wait for me! Wait for me! I’ll take my heart!” But the monkey did not come back. The Shark was swimming and swimming in the water under the tree. Then he shouted, “Friend Monkey, where are you?” There was no answer. The shark thought, “I am afraid he can’t find the heart in the branches!” The shark waited and waited for the monkey. Then he shouted again, “Monkey? Monkey? When will you come back to me?” Again there was no answer. Then the monkey began to laugh. “Do you think I am a fool?” asked the little Monkey. “Do you think I want to give my heart to your big bad chief and then die?””
But you said your heart was in the branches of the tree,” said the silly Shark.
“My heart is in its place in my body. It is always there!” shouted the Monkey. “And you go away! We are not friends any more!”
And with these words the clever Monkey threw a big rotten fruit on the Shark’s nose. Well,the monkey seemed to trust the shark at first, but then lost all faith in him when he found out they wanted to eat his heart. Here is a few quotes about trust: It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” –Warren Buffett “
“The glue that holds all relationships together–including the relationship between the leader and the led–is trust, and trust is based on integrity.” –Brian Tracy”
Trust is like blood pressure. It’s silent, vital to good health, and if abused it can be deadly.” “Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “
Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt.” –Eric Sevareid”
It takes two to do the trust tango–the one who risks (the trustor) and the one who is trustworthy (the trustee); each must play their role. –Charles H. Green,
The Trusted Advisor said “The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I.’ And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I.’ They don’t think ‘I.’ They think ‘we’; they think ‘team.’ They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.” –Peter Drucker, author of Managing for the Future
The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” –Ernest Hemingway
I believe there are a lot of honest people, but I still need to work on trusting people.
Have you ever done business with a handshake? Won the lottery or rode on a sharks back? Let me know and I’ll give you a Penny for your thoughts
