"Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
And if I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord, my soul to take.
Amen”
There was this doll at the Christian bookstore when I was a child that would recite this prayer when you’d press her palms together. I wanted that doll so very badly. But my mother would never buy her for me.
As a child I was never encouraged by my parents to recite prayers or pray written prayers.
I was always taught to “pray my own prayers”, what was on my heart at that moment.
Because of this up-bringing this is what I’ve always done.
I’ve always believed that God wants to hear what we have to say. He wants us to tell Him what’s going on in our lives. He wants us to be honest and not simply recite words simply to say we’ve prayed. Not to say that written prayers are bad, just often misused.
God wants to be our friend. He wants to be in a relationship with us. And as most would agree, a good relationship requires good communication.
So, in order to have a good relationship with God, we need to speck our hearts to Him and of course listen to Him speak His to us, for good communication requires both.
I truly appreciate what my parents taught me about prayer. It has made a huge difference in my life to be able to tell God my heart, but every once in awhile I think about that doll and its simple prayer.
The prayer above is often described as a child’s simple prayer. It’s quickly recited and not given much thought as we quickly skim over the words.
But recently a line from this prayer entered my mind as I was saying goodbye to a friend the other night. “I pray the Lord your soul to keep”.
Suddenly I realized that this prayer has a beautiful meaning.
This prayer IS a child’s simply prayer and THAT’S what makes it beautiful.
A child possesses a very simple and straightforward view of the world. In the Bible Christ says that to enter the Kingdom of God you must become like a child (Matthew 18). Oftentimes we, as people who are no longer children, let so many things cloud our vision and complicate our lives and our prayers. Sometimes maybe, we just need to take a step back and simplify.
“Now, I lay me down to sleep”
Don’t you remember how much you hated to go to sleep as a child? Hated for the day to be over? But it was something we all had to accept eventually.
Now, sleep is often valued more than being awake to live life. What would happen if we all started valuing our days as much as we did as when we were children?
“I pray the Lord my soul to keep”
Wow.
Do you hear that?
In one simple phrase, a child gives God control.
Isn’t this the thing that we, as “adults” struggle with?
I know that, I personally fight with this. I have a really hard time letting God control my life and not trying to control it myself. (It kinda makes you wonder why we struggle with this so much, because from what I’ve seen none of us are very good at controlling our lives.)
We live in denial. We don’t wanna accept that our lives are out of our control.
But a child views things simply and as they are. A child realizes that they have no control over their own lives and decides to let God have control.
A simple faith. Beautiful, is it not?
“And if I die before I wake”
Again, that whole “I DON”T WANNA GO TO BED!!! mentality” enters the prayer. Children don’t give up easily.
What a wonderful trait, Persistency.
Most of us would view this particular child-hood trait as stubborn, but maybe we should take a lesson from this.
Have you ever heard the parable Jesus told of The Widow and The Judge? (Luke 18).
The judge wouldn’t listen to the widow’s plea, but the widow wouldn’t give up. She was persistent. She wouldn’t stop asking until the judge gave her an answer.
Isn’t this the way we are to follow God? Isn’t this the way we are to pray, without ceasing?
Add some patience to a child-like persistence and you’ll have passion.
“I pray the Lord my soul to take”
This final line of the prayer exhibits another trait that often seems to come easily to children.
Trust.
Everyone seems to fear death, children and adults alike. Neither of us has power over the time of our death, but a child puts their trust in God to take care of them, while we put our trust in health foods, exercise and diet.
Why do we lose our ability to trust as we get older?
Many would say it’s because we start to see the world for what it is, and maybe that’s true.
But I think that it’s because we start to lose our view for seeing God for who he truly is.
He loves us. He wants to take care of us. He knows what’s best for us.
As we get older we see evils all around us and we stop believing that there is any good in the world. We allow the evil to overpower us and block out the goodness that is God.
A child can easily believe and trust in God because they haven’t been hurt by the battle wounds of life. They haven’t experienced the evil of the world.
Can we become child-like once more? Believe that there is good? Allow God to heal our wounded hearts and trust Him to hold them once me?
“Amen”
