The Serenity Prayer

Who doesn't know the Serenity prayer? "God, Give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, And the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other." I think is should be worded differently.  I would word it, "God, Give us the grace and courage to accept with serenity the thing which I cannot change, courage and wisdom to change the things which I can change, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."  I would change it because we can all see things which should be changed but we ourselves are powerless to change them. It is not they cannot be changed, but they cannot be changed by us.  Again, the courage and wisdom to change the things we can change, not just that can be changed, but can be changed by us. The prayer is, after all for ourselves, for our serenity. It is easy to say, it is difficult to live.  

First, although the focus is on ourselves, our accepting, our courage and our wisdom, the speaker is praying, because the speaker obviously knows the wisdom of being able to distinguish between the things we can change and those we cannot is often beyond us. 

The grace to accept the things we cannot change. We WANT to be able to change anything and everything we think is wrong, whether about our physical condition and/or surroundings or about the behavior or beliefs of others.  When it comes to people, the only one we can change is ourselves.  The sooner we accept that, the sooner we will find peace. What are some of the things we cannot change about ourselves? We sometimes can change in a limited way our physical limitations.  For example, the cardiologist assures me that if I keep taking my pills and exercising and eating properly, my heart will not be the thing that kills me. Changes I've made is in the level of exercise and the acceptance of and conscientiousness of taking my pills on schedule.  That changed a prognosis for an early death from heart disease.  But there are illness we alone, or even with the help of others are powerless to change. We cannot change that we are aging.  We can fight it . we can deny it.  But like it or not, accept it or not, no matter your age, your body is changing. 

The courage to change that which we can.  Most often this takes more than courage.  It takes wisdom and knowledge of what needs to be changed and what needs to be done to change it.  It takes humility to ask for and receive help.  Sometimes it takes the strength to continue.  Yet, it always takes courage to change.  What holds us back?  Sometimes it is because we are afraid we will fail if we try.  Sometimes it is because deep down we like the way we are and don't really want to change. Sometimes because we don't have the patience to see the changes through.  Yet, it always takes courage to take that first step and to continue down a different path. 

The wisdom to know the difference.  Amen.