"Irv Tingley's Lord's Prayer"

a way to say the Lord's Prayer different each time
that helps you pray fresh meaning into it

(a technique that I still use to this day)

by Neil MacQueen (an excerpt from my longer "Teaching About Prayer" article)

I don’t remember a lot of what Irv Tingley my old Sunday School teacher taught us, (Irv was so old! –he was probably at least as old as I am now, hahaha), --or at least I don't remember that it was Irv who taught it to me!   BUT... I have never forgotten “the trick” Irv taught me about praying the Lord’s Prayer fresh every time.

We were a bunch of 5th graders complaining about how “BORING” it was to say the same thing over and over again in church and at the beginning of class. And that’s when Irv taught us his trick:

Every time Irv prayed the Lord’s Prayer, Irv would emphasize different words in each phrase or line.

One week in the first line he’d emphasize, “Our FATHER who art in heaven”
and the next week he’d emphasize, “OUR Father who art in heaven”
And the next week he’d emphasize “HEAVEN” etc.

He would do this for each line of the prayer.

I now realize Irv was teaching us a way to "game" the saying of the prayer. But this way of "gaming" doesn't diminish it, in fact, it makes the Lord's Prayer even more powerful to say, and here's why...

Irv said, “Your mind can think amazing thoughts in the blink of an eye, right in the middle of that prayer before you get to the next word.” It can think about what emphasizing “DAILY” instead of “bread” might mean to you. It’s like slowing down time.”

Our class started practicing it with him, and immediately I could see that Irv Tingley was right!  We formed a circle and started saying the Lord’s Prayer -one line at a time until each person had said it –and said it with different EMPHASIS. It was almost like a game –how many different inflections can you give the phrase “give us this day our daily bread.”

Example of how you can emphasize different words:

GIVE us this day  ~   Give US this day   ~  Give us this DAY
OUR daily bread ~our DAILY bread ~ our daily BREAD.

(we did this with EVERY line until we finished the prayer)

Here are some of the thoughts that can go through your head when you emphasize different words. Irv taughts us some of them, and many more have popped into my adult brain over the years.

OUR --what does God give all of us, not just me? 
DAILY --what should I expect or need or savor today?
BREAD --what can God remind me to do today that will feed my spirit?

After we got through the prayer once, Irv had us do it a second time, only this time each student was assigned a different line, got to choose the way they wanted to say it, and knew that Irv was going to stop them after they said it to ask them what thought or meaning did their inflection/emphasis give to the line? i.e. what new meaning might mean.

Irv also took the time to help us THINK about what those different emphases might mean. He primed our thoughts so those thoughts could fire in the blink of an eye as we emphasized different words. (In brain science we’d say he was teaching us to harness the power of our associative memory.)

And this is still the way I pray the Lord's Prayer out loud to this day.  It has never grown old, and I've had many new thoughts about what it means to emphasize "our" instead of "bread" for example. (Yes, my brain still works fast, just like Irv said it would.) 

Ever since that day in Irv’s class, when I pray the Lord’s Prayer I still consciously emphasize different words and phrases, and I can hear my mind conversing with those different emphases in that moment of frozen time. “OUR Father …not just my Father, we are all God’s children, this is my family.” “Hallowed be THY name …and my own not so much!”  “THY will be done… not MY will.”   Yes, even to this VERY DAY, this is what’s going on in my brain and voice when I say the Lord’s Prayer.

I've even done it while leading the Lord's Prayer in worship, though I tend to emphasize them more in my head than confuse the congregants! 

I’ve adapted Irv’s lesson for my computer lab teaching too.  I’ve had my kids type lines of the Lord’s Prayer emphasizing different words with different fonts, bolds, capitalizations, etc, …and include their thoughts on what the new meaning of their emphasis might be. We’d hear each computer speak it out loud, then discuss it. We'll use the "talk back" feature in Let's Talk software (the computer will emphasize whatever we spell in all caps, for example.) Fun. 

 Note: Let's Talk software is FREE to supporting members, Learn more here!

I have taught Irv’s technique to a dozen Confirmation classes, and hundreds of Sunday School kids over the years. In addition to Irv's technique described above, I will often teach it this way:

I speak a line of the Lord’s Prayer in a flat monotone, then point to someone who would repeat it with one word emphasized. then I’d point to another student who would have to emphasize it differently. Then another. Then another.  Then we’d backtrack and I’d ask the kids to chime in with what they thought the new spoken emphasis brought to the Prayer. It was powerful stuff.

Irv died many years ago, but I think of him every time I pray this prayer. Thanks Irv!

Neil MacQueen

See my idea over in the Lord's Prayer Bible Skills and Games Workshop for turning this technique into a game.