Monday 29 October 2018

CHOOSE TO TRUST!


As human beings, we are relational beings. Some attitudes are very important in a relationship. Here I will mention only one of the many them: Trust.

We are living in a formation community in which we have students who are preparing themselves to become Missionaries of Africa and the formators who are trying their best to prepare these students.
In this big community, we are relational at different levels; relation of: students among themselves; formators among themselves, then relationship between the students and the formators and vice-versa. Is there trust at these different levels of relationship? I am not sure that I will answer this question. Nevertheless, I might answer other questions, which are not asked, and through them, it is possible that the reader will find his answer to the question.

Trust as a desire

Though I did not answer the previous question, what I am sure is that my deepest desire is that trust may reign among us at all levels. How I wish everybody would nourish the same desire in our community! A desire is like a dream: it can come true… Let us all desire to trust one another and work to the actuation of that desire.

Trust as a choice

To desire to trust is not enough for it to turn into reality. A wish alone does not turn something into reality. Beside the desire, we need to choose. In our life, we can choose to trust, we can also choose not to trust. At times, we trust some people and not others… Why? Each one knows why. At times, we choose to trust some people in some situations rather than in others…

Trust as a decision

After we have chosen to trust, we need to decide to trust so that we may work toward the implementation of trust.

Whom to trust?

We need to trust the people whom we are in relation with. Nevertheless, the first person we are in relation with is our own self. Each one should trust himself. Unfortunately, some people do not trust their own self.  This can lead to bad performance in academic and professional life. Nevertheless, when someone begins to trust himself, he can experience wonders about his own life.
After that trust of oneself, then we should move to the trust of others. However, here it is only someone who trusts himself that can trust others. Those who do not trust themselves will find it difficult to trust others.

 The challenge of trust

Trust can be challenged by the attitude of some members of the community, especially when there is lack of honesty and sincerity. The lack of these two realities can make someone to stop trusting some people, or at times a category of people, or even the whole group, the whole community…
In the context of a formation house, can formators still trust students after some unpleasant behaviors of the latter? Can students still trust formators while they know that these people have got as part of their responsibility to evaluate them, to write their reports and decide on their continuation or discontinuation? Can students still nourish the trust among themselves while they are aware of some bad behaviors of some of them? Can formators promote trust among themselves?

My credo about trust

I believe that trust is possible among human being whatever their experience might have been in their life of relationship.
I believe that human beings are perfectible.
I believe that a human being is beyond what he does. Thus, I will not confine anybody in his past, in his failures, in his weaknesses.
I believe that when I trust someone, I allow him to develop his potentialities and to become more human. I contribute to his personal growth.
From what precedes, I desire to trust; I choose to trust and I decide to trust.

Cekoroba Arsène KAPYA