Now I lay me down to rest, I pray I pass tomorrow’s test, if I should die before I wake, that’s one less test I have to take!
Not exactly the prayer you remember? No me either. The real prayer hung on my wall until I was probably 6 or so. I quoted it nightly. My children were taught the prayer when they were small and they also said it religiously.
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!
A simple little prayer and yet so full of faith, hope and submission to our Father. Entrusting Him with our safety and future seems so easy as a small child, but what is it about getting older and supposedly smarter? Do we forget how fragile life is and how time is fleeting? Every day as a child we lived life for every moment and we loved those around us unconditionally.
However, as we stated in the prayer each night, we were never promised tomorrow. As a child that really never sets in. We listen to Annie singing, “The sun will come out tomorrow,” and we see our parents or the adult figures in our lives as invincible. They will always be there!
Time passes and we become adults. We make friends and gain extended families and we take on different creeds as we age. Some of us were going to “party like its 1999”, and some just partied til they puked. With age come gentler sayings, like, “Live, Laugh, Love”! It seems at every stage, we have some cute sayings or beliefs in the way we should live that time of our lives.
If we had just understood that little prayer when we were oh so small! Maybe then we would understand how precious every moment of every day truly is. Maybe we would understand that no one is invincible and that goodbye or goodnight on any given day could be the last thing we say to someone. It could be them or it could be us that is taken from this life and others are left wondering what if and remembering our last moments. What were they? Did we make the most of them or did we squander them away with trivial things or petty issues?
If our creed for life were kept as simple as this prayer and we had understood the urgency with which we should live our lives, we would have lived every day based upon the great commandment. Not just saying that we do, but actually living it in every aspect of our lives and manifesting God’s love in everything that we do.
Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Life is not about houses, or cars. It’s not about wealth or the accumulation of it. Loving others and sharing the love of Christ is all there is in this life that matters. If we put Christ at the center of our lives, we will find that we tend to make memories every day and that we have more to add to our list of things we thank God for.
Funny, but in this social age, that last line reminded me of something I read on Facebook. Paraphrased -If today you awoke with only those things you thanked God for yesterday, how would your day be?
Sadly, as the reality of the fragileness of life is staring me in the face, one day each of us will awaken and someone close to us will be gone from this life. Did I thank God for them every day? Did I share God’s love with them? Did I live life to the fullest and not take things for granted in my time with everyone around me?
I’ll leave you with this…… What were the last words that you said to your child or your spouse tonight? Each day when everyone leaves for work or school, do we start our day uplifting and loving, or do we rush around worrying more about not being late?
Share love, show love, be love – for Christ is love!
3 years ago
