The Serenity Prayer ... expanded

No better statement of our need to reestablish balance in our lives can be found than in the Serenity Prayer.


The 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.

Serenity means that I no longer recoil from the past, live in jeopardy because of my present behavior, or worry about the unknown future. I seek regular times to re-create myself and I avoid those times of depletion that makes me vulnerable to despair and to old self-destructive patterns.

This Serenity comes from within the individual.
It is not based upon material wealth or external pleasures.
It comes from daily doing our best and the understanding that our "best" is going to change from moment to moment, often based upon our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.
It comes from using our special gifts and talents on a daily basis in a manner that will not only benefit others but also be a witness of our personal beliefs.

Accepting change means that I do not cause suffering for myself by clinging to that which no longer exists. All that I can count on is that nothing will be stable --- except how I respond to the transforming cycles in my life of birth, growth and death.

Accepting things I cannot change.
You cannot change your environment in which you live.
You cannot stop the sun from moving across the sky.
If it is external to you, you most likely cannot change it alone.
Giving up my attempts to control outcomes does not require that I give up my boundaries or my best efforts. It does mean my most honest appraisal of the limits of what I can do.

Courage to change the things I can.
I can only change that which is internal to me.
I can change an external appearance.
I set my own personal boundaries of what I can do or allow to be done unto me.
By daily doing my personal best I am satisfied, but I let go of the outcomes and place no expectations on them.

Wisdom becomes the never forgotten recognition of all those times when it seemed there was no way out and new paths opened up like miracles in my life.
The wisdom to know the difference.
Wisdom does not come from a book, listening to a tape or watching something.
To be knowledgeable or learned does not imply wisdom.

Wisdom comes from the application of knowledge within the experience of life.
True wisdom comes from stepping outside the common boundaries of the mundane world and fully living life, often on what may be considered the ragged edge.

True wisdom comes through facing the challenges and opportunities presented by the daily events of human experience and learning from each experience; even if that experience teaches you that the experience is beyond your personal, individual ability to achieve or accomplish.
True wisdom teaches that failure is not being able to not succeed, but rather that failure is not being willing to try.