Trust

[Ian]

with the possible exception of valets, i don't think trustworthy people go around asking strangers for their car keys. i thought president packer's counsel was pretty straightforward. "i will trust everyone" and "if someone is not worthy of trust, it is his responsibility to show it."

[Steve]

When you say you can trust anyone completely, what does that actually mean for you and the other person involved? What does the word "complete" mean from your perspective? Do you agree with Elder Scott's definition of trust?

[Ian]

if i trust someone, then i expect him to make good choices. elder scott taught that trusting in God means to obey God willingly.

[Steve]

What does trust mean?

[Ian]

our scripture guide has a good definition: "to rely upon or place confidence in someone or something."

[Steve]

To trust means to obey willingly without knowing the end from the beginning.

(Elder Richard G. Scott, Trust in the Lord, October 1995 General Conference) ↗

We'll use the definition you've brought forward from the scripture guide, though.

Would it be safe to say that "complete trust" would be "to rely completely upon or place complete confidence in someone or something"?

[Ian]

i think so. next question.

[Steve]

Haha, sorry. This isn't an inquisition. Just trying to proceed in an orderly fashion!

[Ian]

that's okay, i don't mind at all.

[Tuly]

Good talk by Cecil O. Samuelson - Temper Your Trials With Trust - BYU Speeches January 2009 - https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/cecil-o- ... s-trust-2/

I hope that you will conclude as I have that the matter of trust is a serious issue that deserves our careful and prayerful thought and attention. Let me offer in my concluding minutes four suggestions or homework recommendations that will help us all achieve the necessary dimensions of trust in our own lives.

First, learn to trust the Lord.

In Proverbs we read:

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. [Proverbs 3:5–6]

A computer search of the scriptures leads to over 300 references to the instruction to trust in the Lord. The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We may not know everything about God, but we do know, as did Nephi, that He loves His children and He is completely trustworthy and keeps His promises (see 1 Nephi 11:17).

Second, learn to trust yourself.

Our doctrine teaches us that as literal spirit children of a loving, absolutely trustworthy Heavenly Father, we are trusted by Him. One of the fundamental reasons for our mortal or earth-life experience is to learn to prove or trust ourselves. The Lord who knows you better than you know yourself has given you commandments so “that you may prove yourselves . . . that ye are faithful in all things . . . , that I [the Lord] may bless you, and crown you with honor, immortality, and eternal life” (D&C 124:55). We honor our understanding of our relationship with our Father in Heaven when we show that His trust in us is warranted because we have learned to trust ourselves. A necessary component of being able to trust ourselves is repentance—sincere, regular, and authentic repentance. As we are taught by the Lord, “By this ye may know if a man [or woman] repenteth of his sins—behold, he will confess them and forsake them” (D&C 58:43). We must forsake our sins if we expect to be trusted by others and especially by ourselves.

Third, learn to trust others.

President David O. McKay often included in his discourses the principle of learning to trust others. More than 80 years ago, in the general conference of the Church, he said this:

Tell a young boy that you trust him, and you have one of the greatest means of guiding him uprightly that can come into your hands. Young boy, I trust you! To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved. Boys are few indeed who will not hold inviolate an implicit trust. [CR, April 1928, 104]

President McKay’s counsel is true of all of us—boys, girls, men, and women.

All of us have had experience with those who have violated a trust or our trust, but the principle of expected trust is generally accurate. Most of us adjust our views of others and ourselves with the input, whether positive or negative, of those we love and respect. Listen to these words of Alma, given to the faithful Saints in Gideon and representing his trust in them:

I trust, according to the Spirit of God which is in me, that I shall also have joy over you. . . .

. . . I trust that ye are not in a state of so much unbelief as were your brethren. [Alma 7:5, 6]

Or listen to these words of Alma to his son Shiblon:

And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end. [Alma 38:2]

Trusting others is an expression of faith in them. When trusting is exercised wisely, like exercising faith, trust is increased, and increased trustworthiness on the part of well-intentioned others can be the result.

Last of all, learn to trust the power of the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes the first three relationships of trust truly possible.

[Steve]

Ian: that's okay, i don't mind at all.

Ok, good!

Ian: i think we can trust anyone completely unless they lose that trust.

Steve: Would it be safe to say that "complete trust" would be "to rely completely upon or place complete confidence in someone or something"?

Ian: i think so. next question.

My thought is that if we trust completely in someone, we place complete confidence in them and can rely completely upon them and their word. Nephi trusted completely in the Lord which allowed him to comply with the commandment to slay Laban. A similar example can be learned from Abraham and Isaac. In our own lives, when we are children, we often don't understand why our mother or father asks us to do certain things, but we trust them. We obey even when we don't know the end from the beginning.

If it's being suggested that we should show the same level of trust for everyone we meet, I am uncomfortable with that. I tend to believe that trust is earned over time. I think there is a nugget of wisdom in leaning toward the good in people and trusting in that inclination to a certain point, but there are boundaries to that trust, some of which you've identified in your response to the man asking for your car keys. If someone asked to borrow your pencil, you'd likely hand it right over. The car tends to raise the stakes a bit, and it's probably wise to conduct a bit of an investigation before readily complying with such a request.

Mom:

Trusting others is an expression of faith in them. When trusting is exercised wisely, like exercising faith, trust is increased...

I think a key word there is "wisely."

[Ian]

the scripture-guide definition is "to rely upon or place confidence," not "to rely upon and place confidence."

[Steve]

I'm not sure I understand what you are suggesting there, although I think this may be grasping at straws a bit. We've had previous discussions on this site where some attempt to dismantle straightforward statements, such as "don't see R-rated movies," by trying to complicate the message, assert it only applies to select contexts, dismiss standard meaning, etc.

If someone claims they trust everyone completely, that suggests that they completely rely upon or place complete confidence in that person. The children's topical guide on LDS.org tells visitors to see "obedience." To completely rely on someone does not mean that you rely on someone just in certain things. To place complete confidence in a person does not mean that your confidence is conditional. It's complete! As you're likely detecting in your own responses, you probably do not "completely" trust everyone all the time. We exercise caution and use experience and wisdom to inform our decisions pertaining to others.

[Ian]

president packer's counsel to "trust everyone" seems straightforward to me.

[Steve]

That's another thing. If you reread the quotes, you'll find that they're not delivered as counsel. He does not counsel us to trust everyone, as you suggest. Like Elder Whitney, I trust the actual counsel I've received to "exercise trust wisely" (and/or to not trust every Tom, Dick or Harry...). Plenty of scripture to support this: 2 Nephi 28:31, one of many.

What about everything else I've said in this thread? As I've shown through numerous examples, we were never commanded to trust everyone. The Lord does not intend for us to trust everyone. One may trust certain truths about everyone, but you need not "completely trust" everyone. You did not completely trust the man asking for your car keys. You trusted your experience and common sense before you trusted the stranger. You trusted caution. You trusted your instincts. You may have even trusted a warning voice that suggested this man was not all he seemed to be. When you read a newspaper article or editorial, you don't trust everything they say outright. You don't trust every politician. You don't necessarily trust public schools or their administrators. There are many more examples like these.

However, if your interpretation of President Packer's remarks convinces you to "trust everyone," it may also be that, as mentioned before, we have very different ideas of what "trust" means and all of the disagreement may just be due to non-standard definitions held about the word.