How to be a friend who can be trusted.

Are you someone others can trust?

How can you tell if you are or not?


Here are just a couple of questions to get you thinking...


How do people come to you?

Reluctant, or open? 


How do people leave after talking to you?

Worried or Encouraged?


What is your goal when asking questions?

To help the person you are talking to or to help yourself? 


What is the first thing you do after someone opens up to you?

Blast it out on your social media of choice or take it to the Lord in prayer?

(ahem...careful with this one)


What do you do with the information you are given?

Draw conclusions about that person based on the little knowledge you have or do you trust that there is more to the circumstance than you know anything about and give it over to the Lord?

A handful of habits of a trustworthy person: 

1. Listen with your eyes and your ears.

2. Care about what your friend is trying to communicate to you.

3. Encourage your friend if he/she is seeking it.

4. Build a reputation of being someone who can be trusted to acknowledge the wishes of those you are talking to, while caring enough about them to tell the truth in love, when necessary. Don't gossip.

5. Be a person of integrity in your everyday life. When you set out to do things, do them correctly and with good moral discernment. People will see that they can trust with you with little things and will be more likely to trust you with big things. This principle applies with God as well. Prove yourself faithful and trustworthy with the little things and one day you will be rewarded with the big things. Read the following verse.

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much."
Luke 16:10

In an effort to be concise, here are a few other verses that shoot straight to the heart of this issue...

"A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth." Ecclesiastes 7:1

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Exodus 20:16

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant." 1 Corinthians 13:4

"To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved."
- George MacDonald