“I want to hear you.” People want to hear us, but we are not listening.

“We judge people before we even have the time to know who they really are.”

We call them names. They are toxic, boring, lazy, dull, too loud, too soft, or even ugly. We call them names to make us feel better about ourselves.

All toxic or bad people want from us is to sit and listen to them. They want to hear you. They want you to understand them before you judge them.

They want to hear you. They want us to listen to them. They want us to appreciate who they are.

They are toxic because they don’t think like us, act like us, and work like us.

“If you want to understand toxic or bad people, change your own attitude toward them.” If you change how you view them, the way you see them will change.

As David Augsburger put it,

“I want to hear you, see what you see, feel what you feel

I want to be heard.

Here me as I hear you,

Listen, I’m listening to you.

So I will speak simply

with clear word windows

that let you see

all the way in

to where I live

laugh

and

cry.”