Have you heard of the phrase "benefit of the doubt" or been told that you should give people the benefit of the doubt more often, but what exactly does this phrase mean? Giving a person the benefit of the doubt means to believe someone is a good person, even if you are not sure what the truth is. It means treating one as innocent until proven otherwise.

My parents always followed this saying, giving us children the benefit of the doubt. I never realised how important that saying was in my life and how it helped me until I had a person in my life a while ago who never gave me the benefit of the doubt but blamed me for everything. When people jump to conclusions and always see your actions as negative you feel like a bad person. It is very draining.

I would like you to think about how this saying may have affected your life or the lack of someone believing in you and how that affected your life.

Sometimes we find out that giving someone the benefit of the doubt was not the right thing to do. I realise this can be painful having trusted someone only to have them betray the trust.

So, if our trust has been broken can we trust again or ever learn to give another person the benefit of the doubt?

Leah 

A Moodscope member