Intended Meaning?

Speaking does not mean the words are heard.
Hearing the words does not mean listening.
Listening to the words does not mean understanding.

Say what you mean and mean what you say?
Even when you say what you mean there is a chance that the person(s) hearing are not listening; if they are they may not be taking your meaning for what is meant, but instead for what they feel it means, and that is "a failure to communicate" (Cool Hand Luke).

Thoughts that are spoke to ones self can fall prey to this same folly of failure in ones own mind.
The things you tell yourself may not be what you mean to tell yourself, but they are felt and interpreted that way; the wrong way.
Those voices in your head, those counterfeit people you have created from those that are a part of your life and keep them locked away in your mind, and that inner critic that is too critical are all ways that you allow for self-doubt and tangling of words with meaning.

Intoning. Intention. Inflection. What did you mean by that? How do you want others to take your words?
The subtle differences in pitch, in volume, in tone, or in body language when you say words makes others take them to mean different things.
How sarcastic did you intend what you said to be? How sincere were your words?

If you have to explain yourself to others does that mean that you are a poor communicator? Does it mean they are a bad listener? Or, does it conclude that each person is an individual with their own personal thoughts, feelings, and concepts on what is and is not and therefore they presume the words fit their way of thinking and what is felt by them; ego, angst, and pride may play a part in the picking and choosing of the meant that they take from your meaning.

How do we make those we care for understand the deeper meaning behind our words? How do we help them to comprehend what we really want them to hear?

Emotion can be put into words. Those words can be put down on the page. The pages can be read. In the reading of those words the meaning can be lost. "There lies the rub" (Hamlet); if the meaning is not lost then it is surely bent in the direction of presumed-intent.