warning: potential sacrilege ahead

If you are super-religious and easily offended, this is not the ideal blog post for you!

Yesterday, when I was driving home, I called my sister (Lenore) for some moral support. I live in Memphis, Tennessee. My sister lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. We are both busy people, so I was pleasantly surprised when she answered the phone.

I explained to my sister that I was feeling a little overwhelmed by a combination of things and needed her to pray for me or with me. My sister did not hesitate. She asked me if I wanted her to lead the prayer. I said "yes" and she began to pray aloud. Her prayer was, as usual, very relaxed and sweet in nature. At one point she was asking God to help us each recognize that we must own our own issues and allow other people to own their issues. She said "Help us to understand and accept that their stuff is their stuff and our stuff is our stuff". She added, "I think God will know what I mean by stuff, don't you?" I answered, "Yes."

The cell phone connection was a bit shaky. She continued to pray, saying, "Please lift us up in our struggle." I heard everything except the word "struggle". I thought she said. "Please lift us up in our girdle." So I asked, "lift us up in our what?" She answered, "struggle". I said, "Oh, I thought you said girdle." I giggled. Then she giggled. Then we could not stop laughing. We both agreed that "May God lift you up in your girdle" would be a prayer that we would always use with each other in order to find the humor in any given situation.

Tonight, as I was dialing the phone to call my father to tell him this story, my sister called me to say that a friend of hers (Christopher) had improved on our prayer. He suggested that the prayer be, "May God lift you up in your bustier and support you in your girdle." I thought it was pretty funny, but I liked the original better.

But then I called my father and stepmother to tell them this story. After we shared a great laugh, my wonderful stepmother suggested that being lifted up in your girdle might be like a giant wedgie. So I think Christopher's version does win after all!!!

So, ahem ... may God lift you up in your bustier and support you in your girdle!!! (The laughter that this has generated has been a wonderful answer to the original prayer.)