Love Always Trusts

Last night I sent a text message with a question in it to a very close friend.  She didn't respond.  This morning, she emailed me an apology, explaining that she didn't see the text until much later in the evening, and then she offered a response to my question.  Her apology was almost comical to me (in fact, I think I mocked her for it in reply) because it never once occurred to me that she was intentionally ignoring me last night.  In fact, I assumed she was busy and thought little of the delayed response.  Of course, that friendship is one of the most secure relationships I enjoy.  It's relatively easy for me to jump to the best conclusions where she's concerned.
I wish I was always so quick to assume the best rather than the worst.
Far too often, I have second-guessed myself, or worse, others.  I have been guilty of questioning silences and nearly always interpreting them as negative.  I have a tendency to over-communicate out of fear that I'll be misunderstood.  I have eagerly attempted to anticipate and craft the answer someone desires to hear rather than offering up the truth as plainly as I can tell it.
Recently, while listening to Beth Moore's book "So Long, Insecurity" on cd during my daily commute, she described that person perfectly.  I listened and thought, "I know her ... I've been her!"
The kind of insecurity that leads me to assume the worst about a situation or a person quickly turns me into one of the most self-centered people on the planet.  Seriously.  It requires me to believe that others are genuinely spending their days concerned with me.  They're purposefully timing their responses, selectively crafting their words, carefully planning their schedules to either build me up, or more likely, tear me down.  Ha!  I suspect, the truth is more likely that most others are so busy living their lives, they've not had time to give a second thought to me in general, much less specifically!  Assuming the worst is exhausting.
For a while now, I've been intentionally practicing making a new choice when confronted with a situation that tempts me to assume the worst. I'm purposefully choosing to believe the best.  And, you know what?  It's working.  Tonight, I found myself completely at peace with a situation that normally would have had me in knots.  I smiled to myself as I recognized that I hadn't even had to think twice about it, that I automatically jumped to the best possible assumption - which turned out to be the truth!
There's a large scroll hanging on my living room wall with the text of I Corinthians 13:4-7 written in Chinese characters.  I purchased it a number of years ago when I was in China, and I selected that passage in particular because at the time, I was asking God to teach me how to love a particularly difficult individual.  I kept getting stuck on verse 7, "love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres ..."
As I was thinking about this idea of assumptions tonight, I was reminded of that summer and of the lessons I learned from the passage hanging on my wall.  Love always trusts.  Learning to love others involves learning to believe the best.  Always.  This exercise in putting away skepticism and doubt, especially in my close relationships, has served me well recently, and it has freed me up to enjoy others in a much less selfish way.  It allows me to be open and looking for ways to bless rather than scrambling to protect myself from imagined slights.
And, occasionally, when the offense is not imagined but real, my confidence and security remain steadfast because they're no longer pinned on others, but firmly rooted in God who is Love.  Isaiah 26:3 says it this way, "You will keep in perfect peace him whose gaze is fixed on You because he trusts in You."