Authentic Words

Last week my son was filling out school application forms and answering questions about what he wants out of his education and what he thinks he brings to the class – as if he or any 12 year old knows the answers to these questions. I was a little worried whether what my son had written was long enough or if it was written well enough. He hasn’t had time to think about this much, or had any of the coaching that I think other kids might get, and it really wasn’t his choice to change schools right now. And neither my husband or I ever applied to schools before we went to college, so we don’t have a lot of experience with this process. The head of his middle school gave me some advice that helped a lot: He said the most important thing is that the answers be authentic. Oh. Good. Authentic we can do.

But I think it is our human nature to worry about whatever we write or say. Are we using the right words? Are we doing it right? And this is not new.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus’s disciples asked him, “How should we pray? What should we say?” And as I read it, Jesus said it doesn’t matter that much. You can call God whatever you want: Blessed Creator, Holy One, Papito. Just ask for what you need and say thank you. But ever since, Christians have gotten all hung up on this. Are we saying the magic words right? So we cling to words that we don’t even know what they mean. We still memorize “Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name…” And then our kids wonder, what does art have to do with it and what does hallowed mean? Instead of just using simple words that mean something to us. Like,

Dear God, you are so important to us. Help us to know and to do the right thing. Help us to find what we need and to be satisfied with that. We need your help. Thank you.