Definition essay: Trust

Definition Essay: Trust What is trust? The dictionary meaning of trust is a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. The second meaning is, confidence placed in a person by making that person the nominal owner of property to be held or used for the benefit of one or more others. But what can we really define as trust? In this paper, I will discuss how trust is used every day in different situations, how we deal with trust in various relationships, and how we as individuals practice trust within ourselves.

There are many different kinds of examples of trust. Some include, trust in your family, trust in your friends, and trust in someone special to you. An example of trust in your family is trusting your mom to pick you up from school when you we’re a codependent child, or trusting your older brother or older sister to have your back when someone picks on you at school.

Trust in family also includes trusting your parents to provide for you in all aspects, making you feel like a secure and stable child. Trust goes as far as friendships.

You want friends who you can count on, tell your deepest secrets too, and be able to confide in everything with. As a child I had two best friends who meant the world to me and who I felt I can tell anything too. These girls we’re both my next-door neighbors who I have known now for thirteen years.

As a child, you make a variety of friends and every new friend you make you can call your best friend because there is innocence and excitement there when having someone new come into your life. Part of growing up is realizing who your true friends are. Who your life-long friends will be and eventually never relate to those temporary friends you made again. Another example, high school is a time where you can make so many friends before you head off to college. In high school you might face drama that could cause you to lose trust in someone you thought would always have your trust. That is when you realize that in times of trouble and disappointment, the friends that have known you for many years will always be there to comfort you. We put our trust in people that we have turned our backs on to take us back once again when we need them, even if we do not deserve that type of treatment. Trust comes and goes and you experience that in many relationships, but we as people have to learn not to hold someone up on a pedestal and accept whatever flaws and baggage that anyone has, because we ourselves carry some of those things as well.

When it comes to a relationship with someone you are dating, trust is an essential element to have. When you meet someone for the first time, you can trust them because you haven’t experienced something that tests the trust between you both. When getting into a serious relationship, you experience the good times and the bad times. When the tough times come, you want to be able to confide in that special person to help you through it and lift you up when you are feeling down. Trust comes and goes as you get to know someone and grow closer and closer into a relationship with them. As easy as it is to trust someone, it is easier to lose it. Owners of companies, managers, chief executive officers; these are people that employees apart of a company put their trust in every day. The top head of any company or business is looked upon as a leader and a trustworthy peer who you put your trust in to lead your business or company to success. As a person working under someone who is owner and chief of a business it is also my part to help the business grow and work hard to bring success into the business as well.

Therefore, the top head of any company puts trust in his or her employees to get the job as well. Putting trust in God is another example of trust. This is a type of trust that is very complex. Non-believers do not seem to understand how we can put our trust into someone we cannot see. With faith comes trust, and as we grow in our faith, trusting comes a lot easier every day. We put our trust in the Bible and trust that everything that is said in it is true. This is a form of trust that is different than trusting people who you have earthly relationships with. We often confide in different passages and scriptures in the Bible to see examples of how we should trust God. One example of trust in the Bible is the story of Joseph. Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers, who he trusted, and became sold to Potiphar, the official in Pharaohs household. After being thrown into prison by Potiphar for being accused for raping Potiphar’s wife, he worked hard and became in charge of the prisoners. Pharaoh then had a dream, and the dream could only be interpreted by Joseph because God blessed him with that gift. After interpreting the dream, he became in charge of all of Egypt under pharaohs command.

Joseph’s brothers traveled to Egypt to buy food, and there he revealed himself to his brothers and they apologized to him for what they did to him. Josephs forgave them and sent for his father Jacob and the rest of his people. Then they all came to Egypt and settled in a land pharaoh gave them. Joseph had saved the twelve tribes of Israel, Gods chosen people. Joseph trusted God no matter how bad the situation became. This is an example of how we as Christians put faith first and learn to trust God through these stories of how he reveals himself faithfully. The last type of trust I want to talk about is self-trust. We as people believe the lies we tell ourselves of not being able to do certain things. When we learn to trust ourselves and our capabilities we can go above and beyond our expectations. That is a type of trust that we learn to accept as we go through tough times and seek for inward confidence. Believing and being able to trust yourself in every situation is the key to a life of prosperity. Trusting yourself could be good or bad in some cases.

Trusting yourself could be bad if you know what your weaknesses are or how strong your will-power is. For example, if you have to be somewhere at a specific time, and you say to yourself, “I have 30 minutes, I’ll be fine” but in reality you know by just knowing yourself that you should’ve been on the way a long time ago, could be used as a poorly self-trusting act. Trusting yourself in situations where you could make a big mistake by doing something you’re not supposed to and walking away from a problem, is an example of a good use of self-trust. To bring my essay to a close, I would like to end with my conclusion of the definition of trust as an essential asset in any significant relationship you face in order to help it grow. Trust is a form of a test in how we evaluate individuals and determine who we can confide in. Lastly, trust in one-self is important for our well-being as humans and exploring and realizing all our capabilities and possibilities in life. I would like to end my paper with a quote from Corrie ten Boom that says, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” I hope you enjoyed reading my paper and took away with you a deeper understanding of what trust is.