Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the LORD with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. Discover what you can learn from the situation and take it to heart.You can always do something in the present that will affect your future. How do you accept things you cannot change?īelieve it or not, but you can learn to accept things that you cannot change. Although you'll find more answers than one, the primary belief of who authored the prayer is thought to be the Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Other sources suggest that it was in fact Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, a German deacon, who wrote the opening three lines to the prayer in the 18th century, but Niebuhr took it from the German, translated and embellished it into the form more commonly used today.It won't take long for you to discover that there is some controversy over the authorship of the Serenity Prayer. Despite a rather prolific career and many books on life, love, justice, peace and religion, the Serenity Prayer is Niebuhr's most famous work. Although he wrote it and then thought little of it, Alcoholics Anonymous published the prayer in one of its pamphlets and it's fame grew, it now being part of the twelve step programme for recovering from alcoholism. He was a theologian and a preacher, as well as a defender of human rights, a pacifist and a lecturer. This prayer was allegedly written by Reinhold Niebuhr in 1934. So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,Īnd supremely happy with You forever in the next. Trusting that You will make all things right, Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,Ĭourage to change the things which should be changed,Īnd the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.Īccepting hardship as a pathway to peace, The full text of the serenity prayer reads as follows:
Here's a hint: even if a problem seems insurmountable, there's usually something an individual can do about it.ĭutchess says: Al-Anon material points out that "things I cannot change" includes the alcoholic "things I can" include myself. At the least, there would be less complaining. Think about it the next time seems don't thing to be going your way: "What can I do to make the situation better?" It seems likely that if more people thought like this, the world might be a better place.
The courage and resolve to change the things I can, "Have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Then perhaps add "resolve" along with courage, and you might end up with something like this: You can remove the reference to God and treat the words as a personal reminder to act sane. To those people I propose giving it another shot. Some people may be slightly put off by the title "prayer" and the idea of making a plea to God. When faced with a difficulty, you can first evaluate whether or not it is within your ability to change, and based on that either learn to live with it or do something about it. This can be a powerful personal philosophy.
Give me courage to change things which must be changed Īnd the wisdom to distinguish one from the other. God give me the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed
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