Questioning Loyalty

What does it mean to be loyal? I’ve encountered multiple relationships which ended because one person in the relationship wasn’t “loyal” to the other. So I asked them what it means to be loyal and they typically responded that it means not to cheat or backstab a partner. So then I asked if they gave them any reason to cheat or backstab them and immediately they would respond in different ways. The most common would be, I’m not sure but if I did why wouldn’t they end ties with me first before they cheated or backstabbed me? The answer to that is they have become loyal to somebody else. Loyalty is a strong feeling of support or allegiance. Once that feeling begins to diminish, that person would want to naturally replenish those feelings. They would either attempt to work them out with the current person that they are with or seek someone new.

Let’s take a deeper look into what loyalty truly is... Allegiance, is commitment of a subordinate to a superior or of an individual to a group or cause. Being loyal means giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or institution. So when loyalty comes into question it comes from one person towards another. A person wants to be loyal to somebody who they trust and can obtain a consistent support system with. In my opinion, loyalty has to be balanced in order to maintain itself for a long period of time. However, the act itself of being loyal to somebody has been altered due to the fact that an individual will be loyal to somebody they don’t completely trust or know.

Loyalty is the full devotion to a commitment. People often end up hurt due to not fully understanding this. Yes, there is nothing wrong with people being loyal to somebody, but before you considering doing that make sure feelings and the level of mentality is transparent among the two of you. Why would somebody want to be loyal to someone who they barely even know? Simple, because they want that person to be loyal to them; for whatever the reason may be. However, this is the worst way to try to obtain an individual's loyalty because if betrayed the damage will be irreversible on oneself. Meaning it will be harder for you to trust and remain loyal to somebody else.

In the Gospel of Matthew 6:24, Jesus states, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” Loyalty is more than an action. Loyalty is a mindset and if both parties aren’t mentally ready to be loyal to one another then that relationship would never strive. The unfortunate backfire of this situation is the lack of ability to be loyal to somebody else in the future. Once betrayed it is hard to dig deep and trust somebody else again, inevitably making you the non-loyal person in the future. It then becomes a vicious cycle that I feel is faced constantly today by a majority of people. In order to solve this problem, just make sure you truly know who you are loyal to readers. When you need that support you have to be able to trust that person will be there for you when you need them most.