Listening

Listening
- by unknown author

When I ask you tp listen to me and you start giving advice, you have not done what I have 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 that may seem.

LISTEN!
All I asked was that you listen, not talk or do, but hear me.
I can do for myself, I am not helpless. Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.
When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself you contribute to my fear and 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 the business of understanding what's behind this irrational feeling
and when that is clear the answers are obvious
and I don't need advice.
Perhaps that is why prayer works, sometimes, for many people because God is mute and doesn't try to give advice or fix things
God just listens and lets you try to work it out.
So please listen and just hear me and if you want to talk
wait a minute for your turn and...
I will listen to you.