2024 Word the Year: TRUST
Trust God.
Trust people.
Trust myself.
Trust the process.
Trust.
Build it. Maintain it. Form it. Mold it. Develop it. Invest in it. Use discernment for it. Grow it.
This word the year is an accumulation of so many other words I've focused on over the years. It's a word that is scary, yet appropriate. It's one that I continue to cultivate and that though will continue to be an area of concern, one that doesn't need to be ignored.
This sums it up so well--trusting someone is intentionally choosing to risk making something you value vulnerable to another person's actions. I saw a brief video the other day where someone discussed the difference between transparency and vulnerability--from what I recall, transparency is saying "I had a bad day". Vulnerability includes a few more details such as "I had a bad day and yelled at someone". With that added information, someone--at any time--can throw that back in your face or can judge you or hurt you with that information. Trust and vulnerability must be used wisely and with discernment (2023 word of the year).
Building Trust
-With Others
I love Brene Brown's research on trust. Building trust is particularly built-in mini moments--those small, ordinary, day-to-day things. One of the things that I love most about her work is that she doesn't give step-by-step instructions--she explains that's not really a thing when it comes to trust, authenticity, vulnerability, and the process of creating and owning our stories. Her acronym of BRAVING is a really helpful guide though to better gauge whether am I being trustworthy? Is this person being trustworthy? And when I really hold back--am I noticing something being done that isn't contributing to trust being built?
Vulnerability is having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. That's the scariest sentence when put into practice. Not everyone gets to hear our story. Know who our safe people are; use wisdom and discernment.
-With Myself
Some of it is building a relationship with myself. Which is weird, because I actually spend a lot of time with myself and I actually enjoy myself. I don't frequently have self-critical thoughts, but man when they come--they come hard. And they stay for a while, sometimes as a welcomed guest, sometimes as an unwelcomed guest. Out of all the areas of trust that I have difficulty with, I've actually realized that trusting myself is the most difficult. It's significantly easier for me to trust God and even to trust other people than it is for me to trust myself.
I'm really good at encouraging and validating others. I'm decently good at encouraging myself. But validating myself, listening to my emotions and my body, and believing I'm good enough as is. That's a struggle.
I fully believe that God loves me--I don't necessarily struggle with that. I am most at peace when I lean into Him, for sure. But I also think it's important to trust myself and to love myself,
-With God
These last few months, I've been able to grow even deeper in my relationship with God. The more time I spend with Him, whether it be in prayer, solitude, in His Word, with worship music, the sanctity of friendships, or at church, bible study, or discipleship group, the more at peace I have been. His Spirit of peace and knowing His presence is within me and around me builds trust. As I read His promises, as I share my struggles, as I increase my honesty with Him, and as I increase my honesty with other believers--my trust in God grows. God loves me and is for me. He won't lead me astray and He'll never leave me. God is good and God is love. The gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit and the gentle roar of the Lion and the gentle grace of a dove and a lamb, always reliable, always there, always for me. Trust God and know God.
Trust God, trust people, trust myself.
