Learning to Build Healthy Trust

Trust.

It’s a crucial part of the human experience because it’s the foundation of intimacy and well-being in relationships – from marriage to parenting to friendships to business partners. While trust often begins with emotion, it is more than just good feelings. It’s rooted in solid, observable qualities that assure us we can rely on someone to deliver what we need.

Trust deepens bonds and calls us to be faithful toward one another. But trusting others can be difficult because trust can be broken. Making ourselves vulnerable and relying on someone to provide good things for us is a risk. If they fall short, we may suffer disappointment or feel betrayal or abandonment.

If trust is both necessary and dangerous, what do we do?

Dr. Henry Cloud is joining me on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly to share how to build healthy trust, avoid misplaced trust, and repair broken trust in your relationships.

Dr. Cloud says there are five essential ingredients to trust:

Understanding. Trust begins when the other person believes we understand them.
Motive. Trust is built through good motives that act on behalf of the other person’s good, not ours.
Ability. Trust is a promise that we can deliver what the other person is counting on us to deliver.
Character. Both Scripture and sound psychology support the idea that character is the litmus test of our integrity and our ability to be trusted.
Track record. Building trust takes time. For good and for bad, what someone has done before is the best indicator of what will happen again.

Isaiah 12:2 says, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust,and will not be afraid; For the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”

We live in a broken world, so all of us will experience broken trust as well as break the trust of others. The good news is that broken trust can be mended. Dr. Cloud will tell you how.

Hear our full conversation on your local radio station, online, on Apple Podcasts, or take us with you on our free phone app.

Before I close, I’d like to extend an invitation for you to become a special partner with us through our monthly “Friends of Focus on the Family” program. When you do, you’ll receive member-exclusive benefits, and I’ll send you a copy of Dr. Henry Cloud’s book Trust: Knowing When to Give it, When to Withhold it, How to Earn it, and How to Fix it When it Gets Broken in Life and Business. It’s our way of saying thank you for touching others with the love of Christ. To make your pledge, or for more information, click here or call 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459).