LISTEN!

I don't know who wrote this, I got it in an email a few years back. I have printed it out and have it framed on the wall in my office. I would wish that all our loved ones would just LISTEN!


LISTEN!


When I ask you to listen to me
And you start giving me 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 so something to solve my problem,
you have failed me, strange as that may seem.

Listen! All I asked, was that you listen,
not to talk or do; just hear me.

Advice is cheap; 25 cents will get you both Dear Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper.

And that 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 my business of discovering
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 discover what's behind them.

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 lets 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.