Serenity Prayer

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

These words have special meaning for those of us who are looking for peace and mostly at times of frustration, disappointment, crisis, uncertainty, and hardships. I love the first part which recognizes that God is the only one that can provide us with inner peace. His presence within us in the only real and permanent thing that can calm us even at times where our outside world seems to be crumbling. Until we let God into our heart, body, and soul we will never really experience true peace.

Later we listen to the words accept, courage, and wisdom. Once again God is the only one that can grant us these precious gifts. This prayer asks for us to surrender to God, to recognize that we have no control over external circumstances and that only He can change them. We must accept His will, but when I mean accept; it means really release all control we think we might have. We must trust Him, live one day at a time, and have faith that whatever it is shall pass.

What is acceptance? Acceptance is clearly seeing and being in the reality of any situation. It is being in the NOW. Serenity comes from accepting, being in the Now of the situation and knowing that sometimes we just cannot do anything. We just have to let go and have faith.

Courage to change the things that I can, I think it means taking responsibility for ourselves. It means trying our best, giving our all. However, we must do all we can, but know that the results we have no control over and we cannot predict. I think this helps us realize that we must do our part, we must prepare the field with the seeds and God will provide us with rain. We hear so many religious fanatics, saying they trust God but never do anything. This is not what life is about. Once again showing us that extremes are no good.

We must also ask God wisdom to be able to recognize when we can change a circumstance and when we just have to go with the flow.

This beautiful prayer shows me that if I seek true peace and happiness, it is important to consciously live and enjoy each moment. I must embrace my struggles and challenges; accept how the world is, not as I would like it to be. And most importantly trust God and surrender myself to Him.

We can find God everywhere. He is omnipresent. We can find serenity in different ways. Some of us can be in the now and be calmed when we pray, meditate, practice yoga, cook, listen to music, laugh, or just have coffee with a friend.

Life is about being in the moment., letting the past where it should be(moving on) and having dreams and hopes for the future(working on them). For me it is very difficult, to be in the present. It is an everyday practice.

For me, it was difficult to accept God. It took me many falls and many disappointments. It is not easy to let go. It is not easy to really really believe in a Higher Power, that we dont know much about and that I accepted or not was kind of angry and disappointed at. It took me time, but I now can say that He is the only one that can bring me peace and He is always there to grant it, no matter what.

Challenge of the day: Am I willing to give the serenity prayer a real chance?