Why Can't I Be More Helpful?

"Why can't I be more helpful," Tom asked the Guardian Angel. "I care so much and want to help people solve their problems."

"That you care is admirable," the Angel replied. "But you didn't cause their problems and your attempt to solve them may actually make them worse."

"It was their decisions that caused their problems," the Angel continued, "And if they are to learn from those problems, they have to solve them themselves."

"Your involvement will only postpone the solution, and allow them to continue the behavior that caused the problems, for they will have shifted the consequences to you."

"Here is what you can do however," the Angel said as she put her arm around Tom's shoulders.

"Be a good listener."

"When a troubled person can unburden him or her self to someone who cares, it will allow them to find the solutions that were already within them."

"Then they, not you, can act to put all or one of the solutions in place."

"Afterward, be there with your encouragement and devotion as you remain the friend that was desperately needed at the height of the problem."

"You'll then discover something else," the Angel added.

"What is that," Tom asked

"What you'll discover is that with the passage of time, what had once seemed so important will fade away, as life goes on and new problems arise."

"It is in solving those problems that people grow, and as people grow, they fulfill their purpose in being here."

Dick