Disappointed...*

When I ask you to listen, and you start giving me advice, you have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen 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 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. Don't talk or do - just hear me.  

And 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 inadequacy.

But when you accept as a simple fact that I feel what I feel, no matter how irrational,
then I can, stop trying to convince you and get about this business of understanding 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 understand what's behind them. Perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes, because God, doesn't give advice or try to fix things.

God 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...

Unknown Author.