Are You Listening to Me?

Proverbs 18:13

He who answers before listening

that is his follow and his shame...

When I ask you to listen to me

and you start giving 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.

When you do something for me

that I can 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 is behind

the irrational feeling

and when that is clear,

the answers are obvious

and I don't need advice......

(Author unknown)