Trust and accountability........I remember hearing President Hinckley speak to the students at Brigham Young University on that topic in 1992.

I had always believed trust was very important in everything we do. I also felt accountability was equally important.  But, until then, I had not tied them together as clearly as President Hinckley did.

If you want to have an interesting experience---write down the names of the three people who you feel you can trust most at this point in your life and why.  Then write down the names of three you feel you cannot trust adequately and why.  I will assure you that that exercise will teach you a lot about trust.
Now, here is my request---write down the names of the people in your life who count on you to be trustworthy.  Then use my favorite ten scale to assess how much they can actually trust you.  For example, write down the names of those in your family and next to each name put a ten scale score on how much each of them can trust you.

Example:
I have ten children (all adults now).......... below are their names...the space before each name is so I can put a ten scale score on how much I feel they can trust me.  The number is based on everything I know about myself at this point in my life.

___Toran
___David
___Paul
___Mike
___Lindi
___Lori
___Don
___Debbie
___Mark
___Sharolyn
___Sherri (my wife)

If the number is closer to 0 that means you believe that person really can't trust  you much.  If it is closer to 10 then you feel they can trust you a lot.
If you are really gutsy...you can then ask them how much they trust you and see how their number matches yours!!!  Actually, you can do this exercise with any human characteristic you want to evaluate in yourself.  Patience,  being loving,  level of anger,  being a good example,  living righteously, being hard working,  working at improving...and on and on and on...you can learn a lot about yourself this way and again, if you want to, you can ask your spouse or children (if they are old enough to do such an assessment) to help you with your self evaluation.  It takes courage to do this but you can learn a lot about yourself and the insights you get can become the basis for working at improvement.

President Hinckley, in his talk...stressed the importance of being accountable to others and to ouirselves.  We need a standard of measurement to help us evaluate ourselves accurately.
What is  your standard of measurement for any aspect of your personal behavior?

In this talk President Hinckley said "Every one of us who is here has accepted a sacred and compelling trust.  With that trust, there must be accountability. That trust involves standards of behavior....Each of us carries with us a larger interest than our own interest....WITH EVERY TRUST THERE MUST BE ACCOUNTABILITY."

President Hinckley also shared..."I think of Lord Nelson on the morning of the Battle of Trafalgar when he said: 'England expects every man will do his duty.'  After that fierce and bloody contest, as he stood on the deck of his ship to extend humanity to his enemy, a ball was fired within fifteen yards of where he stood.  He fell to the deck, his spine shattered.  He expired three and a quarter hours later, his last articulated words being, 'Thank God, I have done my duty.' "  (21 October 1805, from Robert Southey, Life of Nelson)

Lives that CLEARLY exemplify characteristics like: trust, accountability, duty, integrity, self-mastery, charity....are lives that inspire me. They make me want to expect more of myself and to be a better example of such dignified qualities in all my relationships with others.  I hope you find this thought-provoking and that tomorrow morning you will walk up motivated to live on a higher level....I promise to give this considerable thought as well.... Have a nice day.  Jim