Wouldn’t it be nice if there were no such thing as “too much” trust? Know what I mean? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone told you they would do something, and then actually did it, or if everyone told the truth, or if everyone could be trusted in business dealings? Yup, that’d be nice. 

I can remember two times in my teenage years when I told men I would do something and then didn’t do it. Both times I honestly forgot, but for some reason those two times have stuck in my mind. On the first occasion I had a man at the Gaines County Stock Show ask me to help his young son clip his pigs and get them ready to show. I told him I would and then got busy and didn’t show up. He came over later and asked my again if I could be kind enough to come help, and I told him I would. Once again I completely forgot about my commitment. It was a week after the show before I remembered that I had forgotten.

The second time I remember, I was asked to feed and water some livestock for two days while a family went out of town. Once again I forgot. This really was unlike me, I was dependable, I was trustworthy. These two men had seen me demonstrate integrity, and skill in working with animals, but for some reason I let them down. I was distracted by something else that must have seemed more important to me at the time. I’m sorry that happened. And, I know I have done worse than to forget to do something I said I would do. 

I have always tried to be trustworthy. I was raised by mom and dad to honor my word, to be honest in business dealings, and I have tried to live that kind of life.  I haven’t always done it, but it has been my practice, my walk, even though I have slipped up a few times. As a result of my up bringing, I have always put my full trust in the people I have done business with, and I have been very loyal. I like doing business with the same people. I like it when I know I will be taken care of by a person who knows what I want, and how I want it. Once I found a good supplier with a trustworthy sales rep in the cotton ginning industry I was their client. Did I always get the best price? Maybe not, but I did get the best value in terms of service to me.  

There have been times when this practice hasn’t served me so well. I had an employee at Fourway Gin who worked for me for nineteen years. We had a wonderful working relationship. I trusted David to do what I told him to do, and over the years he was given more and more responsibility. I knew, he knew how to do his job. I knew, he did what was best for me. There was only one problem with that experience. I came to trust “too much.” My next venture took me into a business I was not familiar with, and I needed to trust my new right hand man as never before. I even told him that he could take advantage of me if he wanted. Guess what, he wanted. I was so accustomed to trusting that I placed “too much” trust in his hands. 

Hey, what can I say? I learned another lesson taught to me by life. You know, I still trust, I still believe in a handshake sealing a deal. How bout we all strive to be more trustworthy, and more trusting? One way to become more trustworthy is to live as Paul lived, and say what Paul said. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21 NIV) 

Seems to me, if everyone tried, just tried, to live a life that would allow him or her to say, “For to me, to live is Christ.” There would be no such thing as “too much” trust.  

Till next time,

Grump

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 9:31 am and is filed under Life Learned Lessons and Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.