The 3-Word Swear Prayer

One of the shortest, yet most powerful and most sensible, prayers that I’ve ever heard is this one: God Bless it!
My beloved stepdad, Chuck, passed away in 1990. He always said he regretted his sinful past, and that’s all he would ever say about it. He said his former family, his wife and child or children (I never knew how many), would have nothing to do with him. By the time my mother met him, in the early 1960s, he had obviously changed in many, many ways. He stuttered badly at times, but his Glenn Ford looks and charm, his love of Country and Western clothes and ways, his laid-back personality and his charming accent made him everyone’s friend.
My mom occasionally said a few of the milder cuss words, including GDI. Chuck, on the other hand, unfailingly said, “God Bless It!”
How wise and wonderful, I thought, when I first heard him say that. When we hurt ourselves, when something awful happens, whenever trouble hits, we want God to do exactly that: Bless it.
I’ve tried, time and again, to adopt that phrase. Chuck never once strayed from that, so he had mastered it. I, however, have yet to master it. But it won’t be from lack of trying. The trick is to pray for help to remember it in time. Please, God, help me to remember to ask for your blessings and not your wrath.