so do you think,

[fflo]

when people say someone will be in their prayers, that they (generally, more often than not, almost always) really have regular prayers in which they remember that person or situation or w/e?

i did hear somewhere recently that some high percentage of americans, like 80+%, pray. many more than consider themselves religious.

i'm thinking maybe it's not so much a figure of speech. but i really don't know.

if it's not all that different from somebody or some situation being in your thoughts, i don't find that hard to imagine. it's that concerted praying thing. i did have bedtime prayers in my early childhood, and i think they had people in them. i know church bulletins have suggestions for people to put in yours.

when i heard that thing about americans and prayers, i also wondered how many of us pray for something to come out a certain way, or to get something. like, acquire. that seems pretty american. and that seems pretty cynical, of me, to go right there.

last coupla days people have been praying for my brother, who it looks like isn't as seriously sick as it looked like he might be. that is, he's pretty sick, but not with a dire prognosis. should get better.

Comments

[disclaimerwill.livejournal.com]

I tend to think that when someone compassionately says you'll be in her prayers, that's a person who does regularly pray. Otherwise I think people would say, "You'll be in my thoughts," or something like that, wouldn't they?

Of course, as Wednes points out above, there's a big difference between saying, "You'll be in my prayers," in a sympathetic sense, and "I'm going to pray for you," which is more like threatening to tattle. I suspect there's less follow-through on the latter.

Thanks in part to The Prayer of Jabez, I also tend to think that a good chunk of American prayer is of the "Tell Santa what you want for Christmas" variety. There was a very strange moment on this past season of Survivor where the two "tribes" were engaged in a pick-up-sticks-style challenge, and members of each tribe were talking about how their side was sure to win because they had just prayed and commanded God to deliver them a victory. No one seemed to acknowledge the fact that God couldn't very well give both sides what they wanted--let alone that God most likely has far greater matters to attend to. But then, they're reality show contestants, which demographic historically has a bartender-to-theologian ratio of approximately 1,000:0.