Years ago, I was serving a mission for my church. For whatever reason, we were at someone’s yard sale, and I overheard the following exchange.

Old lady: “Excuse me, is this for sale? How much is it?”

Lady running the yard sale: “Sí, veinticinco centavos.”

Old lady: “Oh, thanks!”

Lady running the yard sale: “Wait, sorry, did I just speak Spanish to you?”

Old lady: “I think you did, but somehow I understood you?”

They had a good laugh about it. I’m probably misremembering the conversation too, but the point remains. One person spoke Spanish to someone who knew absolutely none, yet understood it anyway.

My guess is it was the context. Yard sale. Twenty five cents. Or whatever the price was. Common stuff in that situation.

Plus, people can kind of sense intent, I’ve found. What you intend to say gets through if the other person means to understand you. On the other hand, if they mean not to understand you, no amount of linguistic finesse will get your message through.

Of course, for all I know, it could well have been the gift of tongues or some similar miracle. Who knows? Maybe it’s both. It could be that the gift of tongues is integrally tied to a determination to understand those you communicate with.

Which, when you think about it, would make the world a better place if we all listened with the intent to understand, rather than an intent to win whatever discussion we’re having, or the intent to poke holes in others’ logic, or the intent to reinforce whatever preconceived notions we have about the people we talk to.

Moreover, we listen to what people are truly saying rather than matching their words to stuff we think they believe. Rather than using others’ words to justify our feelings of animosity toward them, we seek to see them as they truly are and comprehend what they truly mean to say.

In that way we see eye to eye and understand one another, and that’s a wonderful thing.

Thoughts? Aspersions? Fond memories? Leave them in the comments! Also, share this message with everyone, because way too many people desperately need to hear it. All proceeds go toward helping people learn to literally read minds. Really.