Tim Seaton

It is important to be trustworthy. When you are trustworthy you tend to have more leeway in life and decisions. People viewed as trustworthy often get more privileges and more freedoms. If people find you untrustworthy, then you won’t be able to do many things in life that are worthwhile. Others won’t trust you with their belongings or want to hang out with you. They won’t trust anything you say or do. They will just think you are trying to get yourself to sound better than you actually are.

There are two primary ways others will begin to view you as trustworthy. One of these is through the character qualities you demonstrate. Some of these characteristics are honesty, dependability, sincerity, integrity, and selflessness. The other primary way is by your actions. Examples of these could be following rules set before you, always telling the truth, even when it gets you in trouble, finishing the tasks given to you, being a good student, and being consistent in work.

In contrast, certain actions can lead to a person being seen as untrustworthy. When you are deceitful to get yourself out of trouble, disobey rules set for you, leave tasks unfinished so others have to complete them for you, are inconsistent at work, in school, or at home, or are disruptive and self-centered, you are viewed as untrustworthy. As previously stated, both actions and characteristics can display trustworthiness or untrustworthiness.

Luke 16:11-12 talks about trustworthiness: “So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?” These verses are saying when we are not trustworthy in handling something obvious like the resources we ourselves have here on earth, other people will not let us use their wealth. They will also be far less likely to trust us with friendship and property they may give you, and instead take things back they had given you. Demonstrating you are worthy of people’s trust is an important task to grow in relationships.

Another great verse that helps us think about trustworthiness is Proverbs 22:1. It reads, “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.” This shows having a good name, which is also a good reputation, is one of the best things to have after a relationship with God. A good name is hard to repair once it has been established as untrustworthy. It is hard to replace that perception because you have to gradually show others they can trust you again. It takes time and consistency to make up what was lost. Your reputation precedes you, so if you have a good reputation, you will be known as a trustworthy person by others you may not even know.

One way to know about trustworthiness is to look at people who are and aren’t trustworthy. We can learn much from the examples of others.

Many politicians are known as liars and cheaters; therefore, we tend not to trust any of them. Many try to mislead voters about opponents so they can be believed as the better candidate and be selected for an office. When someone they are supporting is running for an office, they use their power to make them look like they are good candidates and vice versa with candidates they oppose. We know they often make promises, then it appears they don’t fulfill them. This leads to the impression politicians are just out for their own benefit, not for the benefit of the people they claim to represent. This has led people to the assumption many politicians are not trustworthy, coining the term “slimy politicians.” When asked who they trusted, people said politicians would be last, and only 13% of them said they would trust them. This illustrates the fact once trust is lost, it is extremely hard to regain. When promises are not kept, even when there might be really good reasons why because of the deals that must be made in politics, people’s views become established. Thus, the overall perception in our country politicians can’t be trusted exists.

But not every politician has a reputation of lying a lot. One politician who was selfless and definitely was not a liar was known by the name of “Honest” Abe, Abraham Lincoln. The name caught on when Abe was a young boy. As legend has it, it all started when he found some change on the ground and realized a customer had dropped it, so he had left that customer a few cents short. He took the change after work that day and walked all the way to her house just to give her a few cents. Another time, he had given a lady a little bit less tea than she had paid for, so he boxed it up and walked it to her house after work that day. The lady had never even realized she didn’t have all the tea she had bought until Abe brought the rest of it. This reputation followed him into his career as a lawyer and later as the President of the United States. He also stood by what he had said, even at great personal cost, such as his life, during and after the Civil War.

One person who was selfless, and was therefore very trusted, was Mother Teresa. She was trustworthy because people knew she would do what was right for everyone, not just her. At the young age of 18, she decided to devote her life to missionary work for God. In 1948, she founded the Order of Missionaries of Charity. Since she had given up all of her money to charities, she often had to resort to begging for food and supplies on the streets wherever she lived. She said her mission was to take care of “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” Her order helped found orphanages, hospices, and charity centers worldwide. At the end of her life, Mother Teresa had founded 517 missions in over 100 countries. For her selfless work, she received numerous awards in multiple countries all over the world, including the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Being given this award among many others shows her selfless work was universal. She wanted to aid as many people as she could, no matter where they lived, and no matter how poor or rich they were or if they could give any money for her services. Mother Teresa is definitely a trustworthy person, as we can tell by her countless actions and deeds for the good of others.

George Washington was a well-known, dependable, and trustworthy man. He was one of the most powerful men in the 1700s. He led the whole army for the thirteen revolting colonies. He could have been the leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world. Instead he decided to turn the power down and let the people decide who they wanted to be the president. He was voted to be president, but after his second term, he decided to drop out of leadership and become a citizen because he had no want to be in power for long. He thought a dictatorship was what they had escaped from, so why go right back into one. He helped write the Constitution and he was the president of the Constitutional Convention where the Constitution was written. When he was faced with the decision to be all-powerful and lead a nation until he died, Washington did what almost no man on earth would do. He gave up endless power and let others take it while in certain limitations. This shows he was trustworthy because even though he had endless power under his finger, he chose to limit his and other’s power. This showed he was trustworthy because he led people for their good when others would have led for their own good, not of the people. He chose to make the power of him and others limited so evil would not reign over the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Being untrustworthy can affect you in negative ways. At home when your parents don’t trust you, they might restrict the freedom you have. They may take your phone or computer away, or they may not let you go places. Maybe they won’t let you do sports and other extracurricular things after school or they may not let you hang out with friends. This could also happen when you are hanging out with friends who don’t trust you. They may not want to tell you about things happening, they may not want to help you out when you need it, or they may just not even want to be near you. When you are at school and a teacher doesn’t trust you, he may make you have detention if he even thinks you are doing something wrong, he may assign you extra homework, or he might make you sit at the dreaded front of the class. All these things are ones you can avoid by just staying trustworthy and trying to always do the right thing.

One way you can become untrustworthy is when you exaggerate. When you do, people don’t believe you and they start not being able to trust you. When we exaggerate, we are trying to get people to believe something or someone is better or worse than it actually is. The same goes for when we have to correct ourselves when we are talking. When we correct ourselves repeatedly, even if the change is accurate, people think you again are just trying to make yourself sound better than you actually are. They think, “well why did he say the wrong thing in the first place? Did they just forget, or were they actually trying to make themselves sound better?” People find it hard to trust you because they cannot differentiate between the truth and what is false and made up. We need to make sure our words are precise and easily understandable, or we may find ourselves not trusted by others, even if we have neither said nor done anything wrong.

Being trustworthy earlier in life can be influential in getting a job and other big things later in life. If you are not a trusted person at a job as a younger kid and you are trying to get a job, you may not get a good reference from your previous employer. A poor report from a former employer doesn’t really help when you trying to get a job. It can also affect what happens in a job. When you are in a job and your employer has a shift they need picked up or they have a big project for somebody, if you are not seen as a good employee, you may not get the shift or project. When an employer has seen you as trustworthy, they will be more likely to offer you a promotion or give a good report to your next employer than if you were untrustworthy.

There are a few ways you can tell if you are trustworthy. One way to tell is to see if you seem committed to whatever you are doing. If you are not committed, then you may not be trustworthy to the people who are watching you work. If you have previously held a job and your employer has told you he or she was impressed with your work, then they may think you are trustworthy and capable of doing other jobs. If you are reliable with the little decisions and things asked of you, that will help you be seen as more trustworthy for the bigger things in life. When your actions speak louder than your words, and your actions speak loudly in a good manner, you will be seen as trustworthy, therefore be seen as someone who can take on big responsibilities. One other way is by just asking other people you trust to give you a straight answer about you being trustworthy or not.

There are many reasons someone might choose to be less than honest. Some reasons you may try and get by without telling the truth are because you want to look cool in front of your friends, you may want to escape punishment, you might want to get out of doing something, or you may want to get benefits you only get if you aren’t honest about something. You may think it helps in the short term, and maybe it does, but in the long term, it will only hurt you. I know some people are more trustworthy only around parents or only around friends. I personally think I am one of the people who are more honest around parents than friends. I think this is because I feel if my friends really knew about why I can’t do everything, they may not respect me or want to hang out with me at all. I feel like I can be more open with my parents because they can help me through anything that is happening, even if they are not happy with why it is happening.

This all leads back to what Jesus says and how He wants you to live. You should be trustworthy and not be lying or doing wrong things just to feel more accepted and to look cooler. Even if you don’t think anyone will see and it won’t be bad, little things turn into big things and God sees everything. You need to know we are being watched and judged by God even when nobody else is.

Bibliography

Campbell, Denis. “Trust in Politicians Hits an All-time Low.” Guardian News and Media, 26 Sept. 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/sep/27/trust-politicians-alltime-low. 17 Sep. 2016.

Reemer, Geoffrey. “Who Is the Most Selfless Person in History and Why?” Quora, 20 Sept. 2014. https://www.quora.com/Who-is-the-most-selfless-person-in-history-and-why. 17 Sep. 2016.