Clear as mud

One night, a little while ago, I woke up unexpectedly. I found myself on the edge of the bed with very little room to move. After tossing and turning, I couldn't get comfortable. Glancing over in Robert's direction, I noticed he was awake. I leaned over and said, "Would you scoot over, please?"

I was so confused when he said, "sure," and then proceeded to move toward me. Didn't he see I was about to fall off the bed? I quickly corrected him, "No, the other way." He rolled back toward his side of the bed and I got comfortable and promptly returned to sleep. That was the end of that. Or so I thought.

Near the end of the next day, when we were getting ready for Family Home Evening, Robert brought up this incident. He said he had watched me roll around and then I had looked at him and asked him to move. His thought at my request was "Aaaah, how cute! She wants me to get closer!" When he mentioned the incident I was worried I may have hurt his feelings (tact is not my forte in the middle of the night!), but he kept reassuring me, in between hysterical laughter, that he had found it funny.

We have laughed about this story quite often since it happened. I've learned from it that communication is only effective if it is clear! Oh, the ways in which we learn wisdom!