When we were kids, if one told another kid something, they might insist that you swear it was true.

You would put your hands over your heart and say: “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

Meaning, if you were not telling the truth, may the Lord strike you dead.

Also, a common bedtime prayer went as follows:

Now I lay me down to sleep.

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

If I die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

— Roger W. Smith

    January 2017