As a child, I was always praying, almost superstitiously. I thought if I just prayed to God, He would protect me from all of the evils of the world. My night time prayer was the usual:
Now I lay me down to sleep;
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
If I should die before I wake;
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
How comforting is that to a child who is already afraid of the terrors of the night? If I should die before I wake?? I'm sure that prayer was composed in a time when children died early in life, but I didn't find it particularly helpful in getting me to sleep. Then someone turned me on to a new prayer:
Lord, keep me safe this night,
Secure from all my fears.
May angels guard me while I sleep,
Till morning light appears.
Yes...that's better! I recited that prayer for many years at bedtime with no one to witness it. It was my secret plea to God to get me through the night. I still say it, sometimes!
I came from a family of devoutly religious grandparents. My grandfather recited his very own prayer at each meal while the rest of us bowed our heads in reverence. One time when I was visiting them, I went to Vacation Bible School at the tiny little church they attended and asked one of the teachers if she could give me a dinner grace to say. She gave me one on a little scrap of paper. (There is an unhappy memory connected to this. I was a good kid...a quiet kid...but other kids in VBS weren't so inclined. Another teacher--Myra Sass by name--was cranky, and for some reason, ripped the scrap of paper out of my hand, asking "What's this??" I explained and she saw, but she never apologized for being so harsh.) Still, if I was ever asked to say grace before dinner, I could say:
Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest,
And may this food to us be blessed.
I'm a grown-up now. We Protestants tend to pray extemporaneously. I figure any prayer is better than no prayer at all, but I was given a leg up in my early years by memorizing a few that gave me comfort.
And, of course: Amen!
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