This is a picture of me and my younger brother. I was almost 4 yrs old and he was almost 2 yrs. old. Young & innocent. Not much to be overly concerned about. I trusted most everyone I knew at that age.

When did I lose that ability? You know, the one that allows you to trust most everyone you know? Along life's highway is where it apparently slipped off and fell away. And trust is hard to regain once it's gone. I mean, if you've been on life's highway 61 years, how do you go back and find what you lost ... and can't remember where or when that happened?

I realized this evening that I've been too trusting with people. My husband has told me that for years and I saw it as a virtue. This evening changed that. Oh, trust is indeed a virtue, but it's one that is earned, and not automatically given to just anyone and everyone. It's hard when it's family that has hurt you and twisted the truth and turned it to mean something other than what it is. You take a person's conversation at face value and trust they're telling you facts, when in actuality they're giving you their spin on it instead.

Am I angry? No. Not with them. They're simply who they are and they need to grow and Lord willing, they will. I am saddened however that I can't fully trust what they tell me to be truth. That from here on out I'll be on guard with my speech and will have to take what they say with a grain of salt. I suppose that's something I should be doing anyway with some folks. What's the Bible say ... be wise as serpents but as harmless as doves? I need to learn from that.

Things and people will never fully be what I'd like them to be this side of heaven. Only then will complete honesty rule the day. And until then I'll go on loving these people, praying for them, giving as sound a counsel as I can when asked for it, and trusting the Lord to work in their lives. HE is trustworthy! His word is truth. He cannot lie, and on Him I shall lean all the days of my life.