Yesterday and today I had a two day incident that was both somewhat embarrassing and also fulfilling. 

On my way home from golfing yesterday I went thru a drive-thru restaurant only to realize I didn’t have enough money to pay for my order. I had a gift card that I thought still had $4.62 on it, but my server informed me she could not get the card to work.

My order was already in the car and I had to tell her I had given her all the change I had. I was too embarrassed to tell her I had no money left because I had lost a few dollars to the other three guys with whom I had played golf.

I told her I was playing golf again tomorrow and would come through the drive-thru on my way home and pay off the $4.00 I owed. She told me she would be working and that would be fine. I promised her I would keep my word and that she could trust me.

As promised, after golf today I went to the drive-thru and when I was asked what I wanted I replied I was there to pay yesterday’s debt. I stayed in the line and when I got close to the window she came out and affirmed she remembered me and that I owed her $4. I gave her a $5 dollar bill and she went back inside.

When I pulled up to the window she gave me my $1 dollar bill change and I asked her if she was surprised that I had returned. Without thinking about it she assured me that she had not doubted from the beginning that I would return today.

Both yesterday and today I’ve been thinking about trust and being trustworthy. Even though she had no choice yesterday, I was honored that she trusted me. And I was pleased to have the opportunity to keep my word and show myself to be trustworthy.

One dictionary definition of trustworthy is “able to be relied on as honest or truthful.” Some selected antonyms of trustworthy are undependable, unreliable, false, and unfaithful. This two day incident is nothing that I am ashamed of or anything I am boastful or proud of. Had I not had the gift card I wouldn’t have gone into the drive-thru, but once I had the food and the card didn’t work I knew the right thing to do was to return with the $4.

It’s not always easy to trust someone, especially when they have not been trustworthy in the past. On the other hand, when someone has shown themselves to be trustworthy it is easy to trust them.

All of us will have to decide in specific situations if we are going to trust someone or not, but hopefully all of us will be committed to showing ourselves as someone who is trustworthy and can be trusted. In Luke 16:10 Jesus made an important observation about this subject: “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.”

What is most important for Christians is our faith and trust in our Heavenly Father and Lord and Savior Jesus.

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Image by Lisa Caroselli from Pixabay