Studying the Serenity Prayer
 

I found this interesting study/commentary on the Serenity Prayer.

The Prayer for Serenity by Reinhold Niebuhr.

God grant me the serenity

This requires that you establish a healthy spirituality and relationship with your Higher Power to whom you can let go of the uncontrollables and unchangeables in your life.

To accept the things I cannot change

You need to be realistic and rational and accept that you can change only your feelings and attitudes about things which you are powerless to change.

Courage to change the things I can

You need to accept personal responsibility for your own life, thinking, emotions, and actions. You need to take care of yourself better. You need to stop being a martyr, fixer, rescuer, advice giver, and enabler.

Wisdom to know the difference

You need to allow your Higher Power a place in your life along with correcting your unhealthy, irrational and unrealistic thinking so that you can better discern what is uncontrollable and unchangeable in your life.

Living one day at a time


You need to be patient and not want total self-change or recovery overnight. You need to let go of the need for immediate gratification.

Enjoying one moment at a time

You need to relax and smell the roses. Have fun! Tune into your inner child and enjoy life for what it is rather than for how you want it to be.

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace

You need to recognize that you are a human. It is only by fully accepting and admitting your humanness, imperfection, and inability to control and change every person, place, or thing in your life that will you be able to achieve peace and serenity for yourself.

Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it

You need to accept that life cannot be as perfect as you would like it since every person, place, and thing is imperfect because the human condition is this way. You need to become realistic as to what is really possible in your lifetime if you are to be free of stress, anxiety, and tension.

Trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will

In letting go of the uncontrollable and unchangeable people, places and things in your life, you need to hand them over to your Higher Power. You need to have a strong spiritual belief, take the risk, and have trust that your Higher Power is strong enough to handle these problems. By handing them over no answers are guaranteed, but at least you have unburdened the crushing weight of these concerns off your shoulders.

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next.

By letting go of the uncontrollables and unchangeables in your life you have allowed these people, places, and things to be responsible for themselves which takes a tremendous burden off you. By freeing yourself of this huge burden, you will appreciate life more for what it is. You will have the energy and strength to pursue your own interests. You will be able to relax and have fun. You will be free to pursue your spiritual life with your Higher Power now and forever.

Thanks, Cats, that beautiful prayer has seen me through many many dark days, through times of trouble and I love reading the complete version.

The commentary is great, those are not just words we chant, they are meaningful to our recovery and a prayer to be led.

Hugs