A Heart Of Trust

A Heart of Trust

Pray for us, for our conscience is clear and we want to live honorably in everything we do.

Hebrews 13:18

In this life it’s easy to not be trustworthy. There have been a few times I’ve tried to help people by welcoming them into my home, only to find out they were stealing from me. I’ve confided in trusted friends and then discovered they were spreading rumors.

Sometimes, though, we’re surprised to find that people can be trusted. That’s a welcome feeling, a fresh breeze. Here’s a story my friend Suzanne Woods Fisher shares about such trust:

A few years ago, I called an Old Order Amish farm in Pennsylvania to make a reservation to stay for a trip I had planned. I left a message on an answering machine and received a return call just a few hours later from a woman named Viola Stoltzfus. Viola called from the phone shack down the lane from her farm. Every few minutes, her gentle voice—with just a trace of an accent—was drowned out by the clip-clop sounds of a horse and buggy passing by. After Viola wrote down the dates of my visit, I asked her how much money I should send to reserve the room.

“Well,” she said, “we’re too busy to make a breakfast for you. So, just send me a donation.”

Nonplussed, I had absolutely no idea how much to send, so I wrote out a check for the amount I was spending at an airport hotel the night before. As I sealed that envelope to Viola and stuck a stamp on it, I couldn’t remember ever feeling so good about writing someone a check. Why? Viola offered me two things that are in short supply in a secular world: She wasn’t trying to unduly profit off of my visit but to receive a fair exchange for goods and services. And she trusted me to decide what that would be worth.

Do you need to open your heart to someone? God knows that honest relationships are built when the walls of self-protection are torn down.

Dear heavenly Father, I pray that I will not punish those who are trustworthy because of those who have taken advantage of my trust. Heal me so I can reach out to others.