The Lords Prayer goes.. "our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name"... but when we were little, me and my brother and sister all thought it went... "our father who art in heaven, HOWARD be thy name"...

laurie

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

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

When my brother was little he used to pray this before going to bed;

"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I die before I wake, wake up cereal.

Alouise

I used to think that the prayer went:
Godice great, godice good, let us thank him....

Could never figure out what a 'godice'was, knew what a goddess was, but this was different...

Gen

When I was about 6 I didn't know how to pray. My mom told me to just talk to God, or something like that. So I did. Then I told my mom my prayer didn't work because I didn't hear an answer. I thought praying was like talking on the phone and God would talk to me back.

Hey, I was little

There's a line in the lord's prayer about Jesus being "crucified under Pontius Pliate". In my 3-year-old mind, "Pilate" became "Pilot", so I always had this image of the Red Baron circling in his bi-plane over the site of the Passion.

It was not until 6th grade social studies that I learned the true spelling of "Pilate", and that "Pontious" is not an adjective.

Liz

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 I was little my sister and I would say our pryers together every night. A passage in The Lords Prayer had me confused for years."lead us snot into temptation. I couldn't figure why something as foul as snot would be in a prayer.

little country girl

when i was little, i thought your prayers would come out of these machines (just like fax machines) and that God would sit in the clouds read them all day.

jenny

My parents each had funny misconceptions about certain prayers:

My father was confused by the line "Our Father who art in Heaven". He thought it meant "... who *makes* art in Heaven". He would envision God up there, painting a picture at an easel.

My (Catholic) mother thought the line about how Christ "suffered under Pontius Pilate" was "suffered under a bunch of violets".

Katherine

when I was about 4 years old it was easter and I thought easter was about the easter bunny. My mom was very religious though and tried to explain the real reason for easter. she told me that jesus had died for us. that night as we went to say grace i said thats okay we dont need to pray God is dead.

Anon

I always wanted rainbow-colored eyes because I dont like my original eye color. My dad told me "God grants your every wish if you pray to Him." I was so excited then I prayed and prayed that I wanted rainbow colored eyes then I checked the mirror every minute if I have it yet. It never worked then I told my dad God is fake!!!

Anon

i used to think that when god answered a prayer, he would send you a letter. i went through an incredibly long time without believing in god because every prayer i said, i never got a letter back.

never gets any mail

Another Catholic Mass one;
I thought when the priest said “Thanks be to God” he was saying “Thanks Peter God” and that God had another name for thse who knew him well.

Anon

I dont remember ever praying much as a young child. The only time I tought I needed to pray was when I was sitting on the toilet and was afraid of falling in.

Anon

I never did understand why it was "Our Father, who aren't in heaven".

Edith

When my parents and I were praying to God, I thought they were saying:

"Our father who does art in heaven, Harold be thy name, thy kingdom come, I will be done with dressings made in heaven. Give us our jelly bread and forgive us our trash baskets and forgive us who put trash bags among us. Lead us not into Penn Station but deliver us some e-mail."

Anon

I am now an old lady. My Mother or Father always said Grace at the dinner table. When I was a small child, my dad would always include in his prayer "Bless this food for its intended use" I always thought he was saying "Bless this food fritz and tenda juice" for the life of me I could not figure out what he was saying and wondered what he was talking about.
Altho I am old I think of this at least once a week, if not more.
It did take me a long time to figure out just what he meant. I now tell my grandchildren about this.

Anon

when I was a little girl I used to think that in the prayer, "Our Father" it said, " lead a snot into temptation" I know now that its not and can laugh about it with my daughter in church when we say the prayer

Anon