[nandm]

Day 3

Universal Truths

"Faith is believing what you know ain't so." Mark Twain

The childhood prayer most familiar to many of us is:
Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep
If I should die before I wake
I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take

This prayer struck fear into the heart of many a child because of what that last line implied.

To "die before I wake" might well have been the reason many of us developed erratic sleep patterns. When we were children, grown-ups frequently told us that if we weren't good, God would be peeved with us, and we'd never get to heaven. We certainly didn't want to be taken before we had a chance to clean up whatever God was angry about.

One friend reported that when she had her own children, she changed that last line to: "and may God watch me through the night, until the morning's early light." Strangely enough, although she professed no real belief in God, she discovered that she was saying that same prayer to herself each night before she fell asleep.

When it was pointed out that she had made it through all the nights in her life to date, she admitted that there may indeed have been something helping her through her desperate times. She preferred, however, to continue equating her Higher Power with what she termed "Universal Truths."

Today's Step: I can find comfort and help in old, familiar prayers.

Step by Step. Muriel Zink