Did’ya ever say one thing…
And your audience heard something else entirely?
Basically it came out completely wrong.
At a recent Beth Moore event I spotted this gorgeous young lady. She was beautiful and dressed beautifully. I thought she must be in the choir or platform party in some way. She looked elegant, fully made-up, hair in an up-do, flowing floor-length dress……at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning.
She was only a few feet away from me so I caught her eye and said
“wow you sure are dressed beautifully for a Saturday morning!
She looked at me as if she was offended and said “well it’s very comfortable”
And gave me a pinch of her dress to feel.
It was comfy – it was stretch cotton, but you would never know just by looking.
I tried to backpedal, I tried to make her understand that I was ADMIRING her
But the initial phrase had come out wrong (or been wrongly received) and I couldn’t fix it.
The doors to the auditorium opened just after that and we will never see each other again. I don’t even know her name.
It haunts me.
Has that ever happened to you?
Have you ever been on the receiving end of a comment that initially sounded hurtful?
I know I have. There have been plenty of times in my life when someone has said something that I could instantly take as insulting. And usually I do take umbrage far too easily.
Perhaps I should reconsider.
Perhaps they meant well, but it just didn’t come out right.
stream of continuousness 
Great insightful post. Oh, I have had many times where I think what I said made sense to me, and then find out later others took a different take on what I was saying. Thanks for sharing.
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