Now I lay me down to sleep
Feb 21
“…I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.”
What kind of a prayer is that to teach to small children? I ran across this prayer on something the other day, and was just wondering who ever thought it would be a good idea to plant in a child’s head that he might die in his sleep? No wonder kids wake up in the middle of the night and think there are monsters in their room. This apparently originated in the 18th century, according to Wikipedia. So, I guess maybe back then the mortality rate in childhood was much higher.
I have often thought the same thing about that prayer. Although I have never like recited prayers like that, it doesn’t teach children to pray, it teaches them a ritual that can very quickly lose it’s meaning.