Perspective

This week I had two students with two different perspectives on a situation.  I've been marveling at how easy it is to have miscommunication and how thankful God gave me this opportunity to see this first hand.  One little girl came to school and was asking everyone if they liked her new coat.  She was struggling a little with her zipper and wondered out loud if it was broken.  The second little girl asked her if she'd gotten her coat at Goodwill. The first girl took great offense at the comment and didn't answer her as she was mad.  A couple of days later these two girls were talking and the conversation was light and joking from the perspective of the second girl but the first girl was taking offense at everything she was saying.  Finally she couldn't take it anymore and told her parents about this whole event.  I was then made aware of the situation and sat the girls down.  I knew the second little girl came from a house with limited funds so I opened the conversation about shopping at Goodwill, how I like to go there and find treasures others have given away.  The first little girl told us how she felt when the comment was made and I asked the second little girl why she had asked the question about where  was the jacket purchased.  She promptly answered that the last "new" jacket she had gotten was from goodwill and it had a broken zipper, so she was wondering if that had happened to her.  Immediately the first little girl realized that she shouldn't have taken offense and I could tell she then heard everything through a filter of hurt.  How many times have I done this? By not asking for clarification, assuming things, burying past hurts and not letting that person know I've been hurt, then my ears,eyes are hearing,seeing everything through that lens.  How much have I missed out on? 

Thank you, Lord, for this lesson.  Sometimes the teacher learns more than the students!