When I ask you to listen to meand you start to give me advice,you have not done what I asked.When I ask you to listen to meand 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 meand 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.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 factthat I am feeling what I feel no matter how irrational it might be,
then I can get on with understanding what is behind this feeling.Perhaps that is why prayer works for so many people.God is silent 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.Then I’ll listen to you.
~ Haleigh Lovell
