My first one was 75 (thats seventy five!) years ago:

"Now I lay myself to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

If I die before I wake

I pray the lord my soul to take"

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At the age of 10 I thought this was pretty weird...

Is that familiar to you?

Happy Genius - I knew that there had to be someone on the Cafe older than me.  (Where did Gramps go?)

I do remember the "Now I lay me down ..."    Also the less formal "God bless Mommy ..."   some simple graces - Robbie Burns "Some ha' food and can'a eat". 

Thinkin of children's prayers, I remember the time Seelergirl and I were visiting cousins in Ont. with my toddler granddaughter.  We were having a heck of a time trying to get her to settle down on the pallet beside the spare bed.  Lights out, everyone else praying that she would soon shut-up as she chatted away.  Then, quite out of the blue, I heard her say,  "Thank you God for this food.  Amen."  and not another sound.  I think that the change in routine had thrown her off.  She knew that prayers are said at bedtime, and this is the one that popped into her head.

Hi Happy Genius---The Song or prayer most in my mind . I learnt some, 62 years ago. -GOD sees the little sparrow fall . It meets His tender view. If GOD so Loved the little ones . I know He Loves me too.He Loves me too". God Bless---airclean33

I  heard that prayer (Now I lay me down to sleep...) on Little House on the Prairie. Always liked that show. :)

My brother's version 50 years ago:

"Now I lay me down to sleep,
A bag of peanuts at my feet.
If I should die before I wake,
You'll know I died from a bellyache."

I agree the orginal version of this prayer is weird & scary for a little kid, but it likely became popular in an era of very high child mortality. I suppose it was a sad reality that touched nearly every family in some way.

We used a variant of that one for our bedtime prayer. Forget the exact version now but I think the last line was somehow different.

Of course, there's the desperate college student version for the night before a exam:

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep,

If I die before I wake,

That's one less test I'll have to take.

EDIT: Several variations here but none of them click. Maybe we did say the "original".

Mendalla

 Nut cases fall close to the tree ...?

In the shadow ... something sprouts ... like Eris; a grand dissonance of life? Something always comes of the aches ... pain is here to led you know something is not right even if it may not seem like you're affected ... if isolated in your thought patterns that are not recognizant. It is an OBI thing affiliated with Heiseinberg and Uncertainty about anything when it comes to emotions ... nobody really knows anything about passions ... as we're told not to think about eM!

Thoughts are out there and we are oppressed by fear of knowing ... Freudian case -etude of nuts ... leading to dryad theory and hammadryads ... but hoo'd know this without a bit of questioning thought?

Leave it lie is the old adage ... don't touch that with Moses' rod ... or anyother 10 foot stick that might get confused as ten's, or IO's ... there are other version determinated by creation to confuse us so we could follow the stupid rule ... don't know!  Ten lost tribes ... IO's ... that's "X" in another tradition ...

Did you know that? Could screw up the Lord's prayer as some thought could be required when dealing with the bread and who you owes forgiveness tue ...  Such intellect is just out a here --- Webster! Llok it up if you don't believe by flowing thought that is not fixed or rigid ... unless over-chilled and then I'D go mad ...

Right now I'm mire lye crazy, or so the authorities tell me for thinking ... even tho' I do it in alien syntax ... like foreign words ... black and mostly unknown to the general population (eM) but what else can I do if thought is immoral, etc ... jay sous chit ... like bits of star dust? Extra-solar particulates! Mire metaphor ...

The elite gathers and darkness surrounds like intellect ... an alien thing on the other hand there's the other sides's Tory ...

Gotta L'uv what's out there ... imagination or what Wiles Hat'n Ur ... her/chi the encompassing daemon ... that's darker than the sun ... yet heated strangely... neuro Niche Lye? The unconscious thought that warms us automously!

Hu'd'ahth' un-Kit ... causes RIPPels in ethe ... as it stirs  ... like ð ... origins that most are not aware of ... due to lack of men of let-Eires ... oleph arts?

I remember my first prayer when I found God, after I left Christianity.