hymns

there was this song called Trust and Obey we used sing that had the lyrics "then in fellowship sweet." I always sang "then in fellows of wheat."

Chad

When I was little my sister used to play the guitar and sing what I thought was 'God is twirling in my heart' ('God is dwelling in my heart' is the correct lyric).... I would imagine God in a long robe twirling around in my chest.

rachel g

At Vacation Bible School one year, we had to sing a song called "Put on the Whole Armor of God". My friend, for the whole first day, thought the song went "Poot (like fart) on! Poot on! Poot on the whole armor of God, of God!" She finally figured out that those weren't the real lyrics, but we decided to tell my sister they were. She actually went the entire VBS singing that song that way...

Gotta love my friend...

I took "Gods got the whole world in his hands" a little too literally. I believed if we dug too deeply into the earth we would reach God's hand...oh and the sky was a handkerchief or a blanket to keep us warm.

Apple

During the Catholic Mass, when we would sing "Grant us peace", my sister thought we were singing about some guy, Grantos Beece. She's 27 now and only figured out there's no Grantos about 3 years ago...

Jen

We used to sing a hymm at primary school called "Oh Jesus I have promised", which had the line "I hope to follow Duly, My saviour and my friend". I had an older sister called Julie, and wondered if she was named after the person in the song everyone wanted to follow.

Chris Smith

The hymn that goes

"Gladly the cross I'd bare"

was one, I thought involved a bear with eye problems.

"Gladly, the cross eyed bear".

Kojak

There's an old church song that goes " Hold to his hand, Gods unchanging Hand.."

My cousin Calvin would sing it....

"Hold to his pants, Gods unchanging Pants..."

Chane

My friend's little sister put her own surrealist spin on the carol "Ding Dong Merrily On High".
Last year she came out with the line "Gloria - Susanna is an extension" ...

Mina, UK

In our Baptist church we sang a hymn with a lively chorus that went "Rolled away, rolled away, I am happy all my burdens rolled away" which my little cousin misunderstood as--and sang with great enthusiasm-- "I am happy all the burglars rolled away!"

cheri

in some hymns, they say, let the seas roar! i thought the seas would literally roar like tigers and would swallow you up at the seaside!

ROAR!

I used to believe that the words (in the christmas carol, "It came upon a midnight clear")

"With angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold"

were actually

"With angels spending near the earth to touch their hearts of gold."

Curiously I never wondered why angels should have golden hearts, but I always wondered what the angels were spending their money on.

Fara Shimbo

I used to teach the song "I'm camping in Canaan's Land, it's really grand!" One of my little pupils thought the last words were "It's Billy Graham!"

Linda, Los Angeles

I didn't have this idea, but some of my friends did. I'm Polish and for Holy Communion we learnt a hymn that ends with words "Jemu chwala i czesc" which means "Glory to Him and honor (to Him)". But in slang, especially kids slang but not only, "i czesc" means also end of discussion, kind of like saying "period." at the end of sentence. My friends thought the hymn meant "Glory to Him, period."

Jo

I thought that the song "the Lord of the dance" was about dancing on a sette - rather than "I am the Lord of the Dance said he". It was great that he as a grown up was inviting us to jump on his settee.

Anon

i went to a roman catholic junior school and when we sang "gladly the cross i'd bear" i thought we were singing about "gladely the cross eyed bear"

annieka

when I was 5 years old, I used to believe that Kingdom of God was on the clouds, so one day, I took the plane. When I saw the plane hadn't stopped on the kingdom, I screamed and one of the passengers was so emotionnal and told me the truth about the God [the kingdom is in the space and actually no plane could go so high}and until my 12 birthday, I was looking forward to waiting for this ultra-fast sonic plane.

vicky

I used to believe that "Orientar" was a place, as in "We three kings of Orientar".

Lise K

We used to sing a song in sabbath school called "I'm glad I brought my offering". I instead always sang "I'm glad I brought my orphan ring"

Katie

The Christmas song "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" contains the line "most angelic hosts proclaim." As a kindergartner, I interpreted this as "toast and jelly coasts proclaim."

Vince