When Trust Dies

Being a trusting person for many people in life comes with its ups and downs. The emotional highs experienced with trusting others, are always tenuous, almost transactional rather than relational. Perhaps, that’s why when a person feels betrayed, trust dies within the relationship of that party and eventually leads to skepticism and cynicism with future relationships. I’ve lived in the arena of trust and betrayal which have led me to believe, anything dead needs to be buried, never to be resurrected again.

The most trusting people in the world are children and they are the most disillusioned when that trust is broken because of the adults in their lives. It’s one thing for adults to promise children “anything” and not follow through on the promise, which is extremely devastating to children — never seeing a promise realize. From my own experience I remember an uncle was supposed to visit and bring me a camera. He never showed up and I never got the camera. I think that incident was the beginning of my learning to distrust adults. By the time I was twelve years-old, I realized most adults simply lied to children because they could, never understanding what they were creating in the minds of the children they betrayed.

Speaking of betrayal, broken promises are not the only events that lead to broken trust with children. Adult predators, who molest, and abuse children escalate distrust and…