Serenity

For you created my inmost being;

You knit me together in my mother’s womb. . . .

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Psalms 139:13 & 16

The serenity prayer has become so much a part of American culture that people don’t really pay attention to it anymore.  I’ve been aware of the prayer for years; but it’s only now that I’m getting how profound it is.

 God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The Courage to change the things I can, and the

Wisdom to know the difference.

 I’ve spent a lot of time trying to change things that couldn’t be changed, because I was afraid to change the things I could, foolishly thinking that the immutable was easier to change than the mutable.

I tried to change me.  I very much believe that people can change, grow and evolve.  God sanctifies us.  I also believe that, like gender & skin color, there are some personality traits that do not change.  He created our inmost being for a purpose.  There are some basics about me that even I cannot change.

I figured that if I changed myself, I would get a different response from other people; that was my subtle way of changing them.  It didn’t work.  I just stayed in miserable situations longer than I should have.  I was too scared to leave.  It would have been easier for me to leave, but I didn’t realize that.  I was not wise.

The serenity prayer is not in the Bible; but I think it’s consistent with Christian beliefs.  Serenity is my word of wisdom for today.  Being wise enough to know what you can and cannot do; and having the courage to change the things that you can, will bring you a greater measure of serenity.