What Does The Serenity Prayer Actually Say?
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.
–Reinhold Niebuhr
They use this prayer in the “12 step” program, but they don’t specify any particular God just a higher power, but it has been used by many and it’s a great prayer to help in our personal life. I try to remember this prayer a lot in my life even though I didn’t do the “12 steps” I did go to several AA meetings and my son was helped tremendously by the program even though many use that program to help themselves, many also abuse it.
I would like to ask a few questions and they are: Do you have the ability to accept the things you can change and the things you can’t change? Can you accept that other people will at times change them instead of you? Can you accept that you are who you are, regardless of what anyone else thinks? Are you able to accept the many changes that can and do take place in your life?
Some people will be able to answer yes to at least one of these and if it’s more then that’s even better and that’s a good start to improving our personal life. If you have the ability to accept, then you will have less stress and worry. You will be able to laugh even when something isn’t funny of course that could infuriate someone else especially if they had just pushed or slapped you, but it might just diffuse a bad situation.
You can gain and control any situation if you can see and accept that it was only a threat to your emotions. If you have the ability to stand back and laugh that will probably floor them, but that does depend on the situation. If you’re in an abusive situation that could be very detrimental to your life because if someone is prone to violence that will just fuel the fire if they think they can’t control you.
When you learn to see and accept things that happen in life to yourself and others you can then find a way to take control and you will be able to accept and improve your personal life. I’m not saying because a person is being abused that they should stand back and laugh about it and accept it because there is no reason to accept that kind of behavior especially if you put yourself and your children in harms way.
Abuse is one thing that can be changed, you don’t have to stay and yes I know all about abuse and how hard it is to get away and I know many things that I don’t want to discuss right now. That is something that isn’t tolerated and should never be accepted, but the world we live in seems to desensitizes us.
These days we are surrounded by so many influences from television, radio, media, government, school, and everything else that everyone is judging….to be continued….sorry I’m tired.
