Prepositions and Prayer

Prepositions…

They are those pesky little words that we were all supposed to memorize in elementary school.

Social media often reveals our misunderstandings regarding our own language.  I have seen some crazy spellings for various words.  I have often enjoyed a laugh at someone else's expense who thought an often quoted saying uses one word when it actually uses another.

Some examples include (with the correct wording listed second):

Another words = In other words

Tow the line = Toe the line

For all intensive purposes = For all intents and purposes

A tough road to hoe = A tough row to hoe

There are also many homophones that are often misused.

Some examples include:

To, Too, Two

There, Their, They're

Its, It's

I have probably made similar mistakes as we often hear these sayings but may never see them in print until we are trying to update our Facebook status with one of them.  It is also easy to mess up and use "to" when you know it should be "too."  Google and proofreading are your friends here.

This post, however, is about a common mistake I see on Facebook regarding prayer.  I hope it is just a typo, or at worst, a misunderstanding of prepositions rather than a misunderstanding of prayer.  I often see people post prayer requests on Facebook.  Then someone always comments by saying that they are sending prayers to them.  I hope they mean that they are going to pray for the person.

We do not pray to people.  We pray to God for people.  I hope this is simply a mistake but I see it so often (on a daily basis by different people) that I can't help but fear that the more it is done, the more it will be perpetuated.

Prepositions are important little words that have the power to change the entire meaning of a sentence.  Maybe we all need to be a little more careful when we use them to make sure we are communicating what we intend to communicate.