The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change Courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as the pathway to peace. Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.
This is a prayer that I have recited and have known for many years. It is most often associated with 12 step recovery groups, but on for the first few lines. It was originally written by Reinhold Niebuhr, who has no association with any 12 step group. He used this prayer as part of a sermon that he delivered in 1943. As I went through and re-read the whole prayer, I realized that it is one that we all can recite and if we would simply put to practice the words in this prayer it has a great potential to bring us an astounding peace. In this life, we are so consumed with changing things that we do not like, including ourselves, and others around us, that we forget where the ultimate source of change comes from...God Himself. If we would each take everyday, and every moment and live those to glorifiy God, and stop trying to control out own environments, then we would all face true surrender. God did not promise us happiness, but He did promise that their are better days to come. As a Christian, (and still in the "baby food stage") I have to tell myself almost daily, that there are always better days to come. If not in this life, then with Him, where we will all be "supremely happy with Him forever". Each day, each moment is not promised, which means that the hatred, the anger, the bitterness, and the past WE CANNOT CHANGE, can and will be made right if we trust in Him, and completely surrender. For me, it has taken years, and many mistakes for me to realize that the only thing I can change is my relationship with Him, and my view of myself. Today, I still work on the forgiveness part of my past, but I know that I have truly been forgiven by Him. This perhaps is the hardest thing to accept...when we realize that we cannot change others to fit our needs, or the environment around us for our comfort, or our past, we must realize that through this frustration that we must look up and go to our knees and bow our heads in humility and not wait for the day when we are bowing our heads in sorrow. Don't wait for that day, because that day may never come. Live today as though it is your last, and appreciate the things that God has blessed you with, even your afflictions.
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding."Proverbs 3:5
