As babies, we trust our parents or guardians completely for our survival. As children, we continue to trust them while learning to trust in our abilities. However, our parents normally make those decisions for us that can have long term consequences. As adults, we trust ourselves to make our own decisions, and should be mature enough to accept and live with the consequences.
As we continue in our careers, we develop confidence in our abilities, opinions, health, memory, finances, influence, friends, etc, and we behave accordingly. However, as we get older, we may recognize that these things are not as permanent as we had believed when we were younger.
During our lifetime, we will arrive at several crossroads where our abilities cannot help us predict the way with any certainty, and where the choice of a path can be likened to a lottery. It is not a sign of weakness, or a lack of confidence to listen to wise counsel if the consequences of our decisions can be harmful to ourselves. It is highly irresponsible not to seek such counsel if our decisions can be harmful to others. These situations should prompt us to develop a relationship with our Creator who is willing to help us.
As we get well advanced in age, we know that we cannot trust in our abilities or health in planning for the future. We entered the world completely dependent upon our earthly parents for our survival, and we will leave this world completely dependent upon Jesus the Messiah for our preservation. In the interim, our trust shifts from our parents to ourselves, and then to God. At the point of our death, our abilities, finances, influence, etc cannot help us. If we have not learnt to trust God completely by that time, then who can we trust?
Regards,
Grenville
1 response so far ↓
Stephen // 20 December 2009 at 3:53 am
Spent my snowed in night reading your writings/articles. Fine one this.
In responding to this writing, I’m not preparing for follow up comments from me.
I know that you know that we should trust our decision making prior to our advanced age so that in our advanced age we can possibly tweak our planning to assure our needed outcomes.
I believe, the question of “whom” we trust is much different to the omnipotent force manifest in your question of “who”.
We trust our decision making and pray for the best possible outcomes, whether or not we have achieved a complete trust prior to our maker’s calling…and, so I hope like the Boy Scouts motto, we are always prepared.