Trust

Today is Mother's Day. What a wonderful family holiday! Our immediate family (minus the "newlyweds" who were out-of-town and greatly missed!), six of us in all, gathered together for a nice lunch at my daughter's house. We had a fabulous time! We ate together, played a game together and basically enjoyed each other's company for several hours! We celebrated our family and thanked Ellen for being "Mom" (and for doing that vital/significant role so well for so many years!). I feel particularly blessed by the day! It was really, really special to me.

Trust. The strength of a family relies on trust. Fortunately for my family, there appears to be a lot of trust amongst us. I am so grateful to God for that! I also want to personally acknowledge Ellen's part in helping to establish that trust in our family.

When a family is very accepting and loving, then everyone in that family will be more willing to extend trust to others outside their family. Ellen is one of the most accepting and loving people I know, and she has modeled that acceptance and love for me and our children over the years.

Trust is really a relationship of reliance. It is predicting what someone else will do based on what you know to be true about that other person.

Conversely, when acceptance and love is lacking in a family, it might be difficult for members of that family to develop trust with each other and/or among friends/acquaintances away from the family.

Trust is a very sacred and fragile thing. It is extremely hard to regain trust if it is ever lost.

I believe that a family is the basic building block of all societies. One man married (before the eyes of God) to one woman, and if fortunate, blessed with several children. It is so simple really. Families filled with trust make for great neighborhoods, great communities, great cities, great states and a great nation. Families lacking trust lead to enormous problems for neighborhoods, communities, cities, states and nations. If families aren't established as they were intended by God to be established, and if trust is broken between family members, is it any wonder that we have the problems we do in our neighborhoods, communities, cities, states and this nation?

Trust. It's what makes a family work well. Without it, we encounter lots and lots of issues/problems. If you enjoy trust in your family, thank God for it. It is a gift! If you lack trust in your family, do whatever you need to do to re-establish it, and then watch to see how much you will be blessed by doing so.

Happy Mother's Day, Ellen! Thanks for always being so accepting and loving of me and our children. Thanks for working so hard to establish and maintain trust in our immediate family.