Please Listen
By Dr. Neil Chadwick

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 
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. Advice is cheap; 20 cents will get you 
both Dear Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper.

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 - because God seldom 
speaks in an audible voice, and He doesn't force His 
way.

God listens and lets you work it out with His caring 
assistance.

So please listen, and just hear me. And if you want to 
talk, wait a minute for your turn - and I will listen 
to you.