Boundaries and Trust

Reflection and Prayer Prompts

These prompts are designed to help you sit with the material on trust and let it do deeper work in your heart. There's no rush. Take what's helpful and leave the rest.

Personal Reflection Questions

1. When you think about trust — trusting others or being trusted — what does your body do? Does your chest tighten? Do you feel yourself pulling back? Or do you feel warmth and openness? What might your physical response be telling you about your relationship with trust?

2. Who taught you about trust? Think back to your earliest experiences. Was trust something that felt safe in your family, or was it something that got you hurt? How might those early lessons still be shaping how you relate to trust today?

3. Is there a relationship in your life right now where you're confused about trust? You can't quite figure out whether to open up more or protect yourself? Sit with that confusion for a moment. What would you need to know or see in order to move toward clarity?

4. When you say yes to things, do people believe you? Do they know where you stand — what you really think, what you actually want? Or have you trained people to dismiss your yes because it doesn't always mean what you say?

5. Where in your life have you been hoping something would be different without any evidence that it will be? A relationship? A job? A pattern of your own? What would it mean to finally accept that hope alone isn't enough?

6. What is your relationship with your own gut feelings? Do you listen to them? Dismiss them? Have you been talked out of your instincts by others — or by your own desire to see the best in people?

7. If you were to think about yourself as someone you're in relationship with — how trustworthy have you been to yourself? Have you kept your promises to yourself? Or have you been the kind of person who regularly lets yourself down?

8. What would change in your life if you deeply trusted yourself — not because you're perfect, but because you know you can handle what comes?

Guided Prayer Language

Use these as starting points. Let your words follow where your heart leads.

A Prayer for Discernment

God, I don't always know who to trust. Sometimes my heart says one thing and my experience says another. I want to be wise, not suspicious. Open, not naive.

Help me pay attention to what I've been ignoring — the patterns I didn't want to see, the warnings I talked myself out of, the truth I've been avoiding. And give me the courage to act on what I learn.

I don't want to wall myself off from everyone. But I also don't want to keep getting hurt by the same things. Teach me the difference between green lights, yellow lights, and red lights — and give me the wisdom to respond accordingly.

Amen.

A Prayer for Self-Trust

God, I haven't always been good to myself. I've made promises I didn't keep. I've ignored my own needs. I've second-guessed myself into silence. Sometimes I don't even know what I feel anymore.

Help me learn to trust myself again — not because I'll never make mistakes, but because you're growing me into someone who can. Show me where I've been abandoning myself, and give me the grace to start showing up differently.

I want to be someone I can count on. Someone whose yes means something. Someone who knows themselves well enough to be honest about what they need.

It starts small. One kept promise at a time. One honest moment at a time. Help me build something I can trust.

Amen.

A Prayer for Moving Forward

God, I've been stuck for a while now. The same patterns. The same people. The same holes in the same street.

Part of me knows things need to change, but I keep hoping this time will be different. Help me see the truth: when something is actually different, and when I'm just telling myself a story because change is hard.

Give me the strength to take a different street — even if it feels lonely, even if it means disappointing someone, even if I don't know what's on the other side.

I trust that you're with me wherever I go. And I trust that moving toward health — even slowly, even imperfectly — is moving toward you.

Amen.

Optional Journaling Prompts

Use these for longer written reflection. Let yourself write freely without editing.

1. Write about a time you trusted someone and it went well. What made it work? What did that person do that earned your trust? What did you do that allowed you to open up? What can you learn from that experience about what healthy trust looks like for you?

2. Write about a time you ignored your gut and regretted it. What did your gut tell you? Why did you ignore it? What happened as a result? What would you do differently now?

3. Describe the version of yourself who trusts well. What does that person do differently than you do now? How do they evaluate relationships? How do they respond when trust is broken? How do they treat themselves? Write about this version of yourself as if they already exist — even if you're not there yet.

4. Write a letter to someone who broke your trust. You don't have to send it. Just write what you would want to say if there were no consequences and no audience. What did they do? How did it affect you? What do you wish they understood? What do you need in order to move forward — whether or not they ever give it to you?

5. Complete this sentence and keep writing: "The pattern I've finally started to see is..."

Let yourself follow whatever comes up. You may be surprised where it leads.

A Final Word

Trust is one of the most tender and important parts of being human. When it works, relationships become life-giving. When it doesn't, we either close ourselves off or keep getting hurt.

There's no formula for getting trust right. But there is wisdom to be gained — about others, and about yourself. Every question you ask, every honest moment of reflection, is a step toward becoming someone who trusts well and is worth trusting.

Take your time with these prompts. Come back to them later. Let the work be slow if it needs to be.

You're not behind. You're exactly where you need to be.

This resource is part of the Boundaries and Trust series, designed to help you build healthy, life-giving relationships through practical wisdom and honest self-reflection.