Do you ever feel like misunderstood? You are not alone.

I received an email a few weeks back of a humorous collection of children's prayer "bloopers," submitted mostly by parents. Most of them included learned prayers that had been misunderstood by the kids that prayed them. I thought I would share some of them with you:

~ When my twin daughters were young, I taught them to say the Lord's Prayer before going to bed. As I listened outside their door, I could hear them say, "Give us this steak and daily bread, and forgive us our mattresses." 

~ My son, who is in nursery school, said, "Our Father, who art in Heaven, how didja know my name?" 

~ I remember thinking it said "Give us this day our jelly bread." 

~ When my husband was 6 years old, he thought a certain Prayer was "He suffered under a bunch of violets." The real words were "under Pontius Pilate," but at that age, he didn't know better. To this day, we still snicker in church whenever that prayer is read. 

~ My mother spent her early childhood saying, "Hail Mary, full of grapes." 

~ When my older brother was very young, he always walked up to the church altar with my mother when she took communion. On one occasion, he tugged at her arm and asked, "What does the priest say when he gives you the bread?" Mom whispered something in his ear. Imagine his shock many years later when he learned that the priest doesn't say, "Be quiet until you get to your seat."  

~ When I was younger, I believed the line was "Lead a snot into temptation." I thought I was praying for my little sister to get into trouble.

Human communication is imperfect at best, especially for little ones. But the good news is, when we are honestly talking to the Lord in prayer, and come to Him like a little child, He has the ability to hear more than our words. He hears our hearts. Now, that might mean that He skips right past our empty religious words and hears our insincerity, as Jesus spoke of in Matthew 6. Or it might mean that He looks past our confusion and misunderstanding, and sees the sincerity of our hearts in prayer, and answers accordingly.

It is surely a comfort to be known by the Lord, inside and out, so that we never have to worry about Him misunderstanding what we mean, when we mean it. Even if we are praying for steak and daily bread.

So be sure not to neglect the great privilege we have of touching heaven every day by communing with our Heavenly Father in prayer. I am praying for you, as I hope you are for me, and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

 --Pastor Ken