Why are there prayers like this?

Question

When I was a child, the prayer I said at night was this:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the lord my soul to keep.
And if I die before I wake,
I pray the lord my soul to take.
God bless (etc etc etc)
Amen.

WHY would people make children say such a horrible, HORRIBLE thing??? "If I die before I wake". That's terrible!!

Answer 1

You're talking about a God who drowned millions of people and animals, slaughtered thousands of firstborns, and had his own kid beaten and killed. ANY prayer to him is horrible and disgusting!

Answer 2

It's not so horrible. It can happen. All you were doing was asking the Lord to take you home should you die in your sleep. Death is an irrefutable fact. Back when that prayer was dreamed up-it was probably even more likely than not to happen. Kids were born with helmets back then and stuff like this didn't really bother them.

Answer 3

It's not a horrible thing. Death is a part of life.
Learning a little about it early is healthy.
Shielding a child totally away from the subject of death makes them less sensitive.
No one is promised tomorrow.
It is sad when you lose someone close but we all will face it and all will have to cope with it.
I would love to have the reasonable assurance that the Lord did have my soul if I did not awaken in the morrow.

Answer 4

Because prayers have been in the majority, written by religious zealots and fanatics and in times when it was really very acceptable to write such drivel !!

Answer 5

I think it's more horrifying to some adults than children; most kids who learn this prayer are pretty matter-of-fact about it. Same with that nice old lullaby "rock-a-bye baby", the one about putting a baby in the top of a tree and when the wind blows, down he goes. Pretty horrifying imagery there, too.

Answer 6

How about:
Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
See me safely through the nigh,
And wake me with the morning light.
Amen.

Do not judge all by one writing.

Answer 7

My kids had a stuffed animal that played that prayer but it was changed to "May angels watch me through the night, until I wake to morning's light." And believe me I was the one praying the would sleep until morning's light! (My kids were not the sleep through the night types!)

Answer 8

No one knows when they will die, and that includes children.

Most people act like they are invincible and will live forever. When they get sick or die, they feel angry and betrayed. Knowing that these things are inevitable is a healthier way to live.

In many Western cultures we shield children from death. In many developing cultures, death is a fact of life and children are not kept from it.

When we are aware of the fragility of life and the certainty of death, we actually live the time we have more fully and more meaningfully. That is a gift we can give to our children.

I do not suggest dwelling on death, but pretending it does not exist and that it never comes to children does them a disservice.

Answer 9

I agree, but maybe it was written in an age of high child mortality. A lot of children are afraid of dying and tho I believe Jesus would take them to heaven (hence no need for frightening them!), some people believe in purgatory even for kids.

Answer 10

That isn't terrible. It happens frequently. How many people have went to bed never to wake up. It's a part of life one that you can't get out of. People die and sometimes it happens in the middle of the night. And as badly as it may sound, sometimes it happens to children.