Serenity prayer prayer11/21/2023 ![]() ![]() 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. If your image of God is hyper-masculine, pray for wisdom and picture wisdom as a woman who is a lover, builder, pillar-hewer, party-thrower, wine-mixer (a full-of-life being, not a scold). Lady wisdom calls out in the streets, throws banquets, builds a house (hewing her own pillars), and mixes her own wine. Her femininity isn’t the eighteen century, dainty-Victorian version either. She is personified as Lady Wisdom, described as a lover. sophia) is gendered as a female attribute of God. It’s not always clear thought whether something is within our control or beyond our control. These are two different strategies, depending on different situation: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference. Eventually you learn to accept the rock-like existence of the rock-you admit the rock has the upper hand, and you dig around it. It’s a bit like digging a hole and you hit a rock with the shovel. We tend to ignore the possibility that some things are beyond our control…and we only bear down harder in an effort to exert control. Many us have strong instinct to control along with an exaggerated hope of control in every situation-a fiction we maintain to shield ourselves from how vulnerable we are. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change courage to change the things I can Some things are within our control, other things beyond our control. When he could cut the anxiety with a knife in the room, he would say, “Peace be with you.” Just as fear/anxiety is contagious, serenity/calm/peace is too. Let’s review it line by line: God grant me the serenity… The thing Jesus dispensed to distressed people first was peace, reassurance. So this prayer is especially helpful for times when anxiety, distress, fear, envy, resentment, or moldering anger are wearing you down. He later wrote: “ Whenever I find myself under acute tensions, I lengthen my daily walks and slowly repeat our Serenity Prayer in rhythm to my steps and breathing” ( As Bill W. The first line of the prayer is well known, but AA’s motto “ one day at time” comes from longer form.īill Wilson, one of the founders of AA, wrote in the Big Book: “we…select & memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discovering” Select-find ones that fit your need, then Memorize-like you memorize password for smart phone, for readiness/ease of use (87). 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 God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change Ĭourage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference. Here is the full version of The Serenity Prayer: and President Barak Obama were fans of Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr organized against Klan during a key city council election when Klan and White Supremacy was on rise in Detroit, a fact that has contemporary relevance. During this period, the KKK was prominent in Detroit politics. Niebuhr led a church in Detroit in the 1920’s. The original version was composed by Reinhold Niebuhr, a theologian-ethicist. The Serenity Prayer is one of a handful of go-to prayers used in AA. These prayers were not selected by monks, nuns, or some liturgical commission, but by mostly non-religious types who are battling inner demons like we all do. ![]() Enter Step 11 of AA: “we sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God” Ready-Made prayers are daily-bread prayers-prayers for the daily slog.ĪA has done a service for all of us by field-testing prayers, finding ones that help us in our powerless places. He says spontaneous prayers (from the heart and on-the-fly) are good for “peaks & valleys.” Something great happens and you bust out with “THANK YOU GOD!” Or you’re in dire straits and cry, HELP GOD! These prayers erupt like geysers when our hearts are full of joy or desperation.īut most of time, our hearts not bursting with anything. Bloom orients us to “Ready Made” prayers. ![]() WHAT’S A READY-MADE PRAYER ANYWAY?Īnthony Bloom, a doctor who served in the French resistance during WWII, then became a bishop in Eastern Orthodox Church, wrote a great little book on prayer called, Beginning to Pray. The Serenity Prayer, made famous by its use in Alcoholics Anonymous, is ready made prayer for inner turmoil.
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