Blog Number 7

I've loved our discussions these past couple weeks - it's funny how the things we learn in class are really quite obvious. How easy it is to forget about the obvious things when we over analyze.

Ultimately, communication one of the most important things in a relationship. The reason there are problems is very often because of miscommunication. Oddly enough, I had the opportunity to test my new knowledge of communication in my life recently! I have a friend and we've gone a little while without talking. There were just miscommunications about things. I told them about things that had been bugging me for about a year now and they told me things that had been bugging them. It was crazy! And probably the best discussion I've ever had. I felt so free after it - even though we still had some questions and things to work on, just getting all those things off my chest and then seeing how they actually felt without playing games or putting on a mask was really awesome.

People can't read your mind - I know, crazy, right?!

There are all sorts of ways that we communicate - without even knowing it! In the case of my friend, I misinterpreted their meanings so I acted a little weird and defensive, and they noticed that I acted that way, so they then acted accordingly haha it was just not good. We both knew that something was up and that there was a problem, but we didn't know what it was, so we couldn't fix it!

I loved Brother William's story about when his wife thought he wanted to punch her face. Obviously I didn't like that she felt that way, but I think that that shows perfectly the way that humans can misinterpret things. That's why it's so important to let the person you are trying to communicate to know exactly what's going on in your mind.

I'm so grateful that Brother Williams brought up in class the importance of having the Spirit with us when we communicate. With the Spirit, we can more effectively get our ideas across and both us and the person we are trying to communicate to will be less likely to be defensive. Hopefully, with the Spirit's help - the best solution will show up and it will produce itself in such a way that will make the participants gain more knowledge and draw closer together.