LISTEN
When I ask you to listen to me
and you start giving advice,
you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you begin to tell me why I shouldn't feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem,
you have failed me, strange as this may seem.
Listen! all I asked is that you listen,
not talk or do - just hear me.
Advice is cheap: 25 cents will get you both Dear Abbey and
Billy Graham in the same newspaper.
And I can do for myself; I'm not helpless;
maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.
When you do something for me that I can and should do for myself,
you contribute to my weakness.
But, when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel,
no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince
you and get about business of understanding
what's behind this irrational feeling.
And when that's clear, the answers are obvious and I don't
need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what's behind
them.
Perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes, for some people,
because God is mute and He doesn't give advice or try to fix
things.
He just listens and let's you work it out for yourself.
So please listen and just hear me. And if you want to talk,
wait a minute for your turn and I'll listen to you.
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