The Serenity Prayer

God, give me 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.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

This is the full version of the serenity prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr.  

This is one of the first prayers that I clung to as a new believer in my twenties.  I only knew the first stanza, since that is all they taught us in AA, but I clung to it often.  I was introduced to the full version by a dear friend who is walking with Martha and I as we try to figure out how to live as a healthy adoptive family.  There is so much truth in this prayer, I need to meditate on it more.