I used to think that if you tied a note to a balloon then the balloon would take it all the way to heaven and God could read it. I didn't know wat to write to God so i just tied a flower to a balloon and sent it up there

Erin

I used to believe it was the father, the SUN, and the holy spirit. I had no idea why we'd be praying to the sun since it was just...well I didn't exactly know what the sun was then either but I knew it had nothing to do with Catholicism...I was very confused for a while . . . up into the 7th grade actually . . . I'm slow, I admit it . . .

Anon

I used to pray everynight before I went to bed, and I had 2 nearly OCD-like things I needed to do in my prayers. First, I had to ask God to bless a very specific list of people I knew in a specific order.

Secondly, I believed that prayer was a direct conversation with God himself, so I was very careful to let him know that my prayer was over, often for several minutes after saying "Amen." I thought that if I didn't do this and accidentally said a bad word or did something bad, God would know immediately, and would be angry with me.

Hmm... may be why I'm a lapsed-Christian today...

humble Chris

When I was a little girl I had many warts on my fingers. I was so embarassed by them. I remember being in church one Sunday and praying to God to take my warts away. The next thing I heard was "Our Father who has warts in heaven.." And from that day on I was so proud that I had warts just like God!

Beth

when you light the menorah during hannukah, there's a saying that you're supposed to recite and it's in hebrew. used to think the end of it said: "Miss Evon knew Lahadlick Nair, shall Hannukah"

Anon

When I was really little, I thought that the Lord's Prayer went, "Our father, you aren't in heaven...give us this day, our daily bed...the Father, the Son, and the Bully Spirit..." I still laugh at that one!!!

Mandy Grrrl

When I was little, I heard the commandment "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house". At the time, I was under the impression that a "neighbor" was only limited to next door. Imagine my surprise when my next-door neighbors had their house bug-bombed and it had a large cloth cover over it -- I thought the commandment said "Thou shalt not COVER thy neighbor's house"!

Bunny

When my brother-in-law was young, he thought the priest was saying: "Dominic, go frisk 'em" instead of Dominus Vobiscum.

Linda

When my daughter was learning her prayers in parochial school, her homework was to practice reciting them. I was in stitiches when she spoke of the "Holy Spearmint", "Jesus, Mary, and Jophesine" (her grandmother's name is Josephine and she pronounced that backwards too!), and "Hail Mary, full of...full of...Mom, what's she full of?"

Susan

I'll never forget the day I learned that the correct wording in the prayer was "and let perpetual light shine upon them". For years I'd been asking God to "let the petrol light shine upon them".

Susan

I was taught to pray as a 3-year-old, but I learned what the word "afasha" meant ... as in "Afasha die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."

Rote memorization isn't always the best method.

Jim

"Our father, who AREN'T in heaven."

Dead people went to heaven, but I figured maybe God lived some place even higher. But I still didn't understand the bad grammar.

Anon

We were praying for somebody close to us that was sick. My daughter (at the time 6yrs) proceeded with "Dear Lord, abra cadabra..." whereupon we collapsed into hysterics.

D

As a little girl I was brought up quite religious even to the point that in the month of October we all had to say the rosary every night, no matter what, but one night I was just too tired so I tried to sneak into bed when my mum shouted (get out of bed this minute and say your prayers even a cow gets down on its knees before sleeping).

bernadette