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 that may seem.

Listen! All I ask, is that you listen.
Not talk or do... just hear me.
Advice is cheap:
50 cents will get you both Dear Abby 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 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's clear, the answers are obvious,
and I don't need advice.

Perhaps that's why prayer works,
sometimes, for some people because God is mute,
and God doesn't give advice or try to fix things.
God just listens and helps you work it out yourself.

So please listen and hear me.
And if you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn;
And I'll listen to you...

~ Author Unknown ~