Are You Listening?

Proverbs 18:13 "He who answers before listening that is his folly and his shame....."

When I ask you to listen to me

and you start to give advice

you have not done what I ask.

When I ask you to listen to me

and you begin to tell me

why I should not feel that way,

you have trapped 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 listen and hear me.

I can do for myself, I am not helpless.

Maybe discouraged and faltering,

but not helpless.

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 is behind

the irrational feeling

and when that is clear,

the answers are obvious

and I don't need advice....

I just need you to listen...

His beloved,

Connie