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.
In the July Ah-Man Newsletter, I related how the Serenity Prayer has helped me see things from a different perspective.
In the last two weeks, I examined the first two lines of the prayer. So now in week three, we will explore the third line.
“And the wisdom to know the difference”
The first two lines help us with discernment and discrimination. They have helped us spiritually. First, we are now being granted God’s grace of judgment and distinction… knowing that “all things happen for a reason” and being granted the Grace of Serenity. Secondly, we see things from a new perspective. Knowing that our way was not working, we asked for the Courage to Change. And when we surrendered our way, we were able to see things differently…from a new perspective; a perspective that is now from a spiritual standpoint.
This new perspective is not of us, but of God or the God within us. As it is stated in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous (after we have put the steps of the program into our lives, following the spiritual program): “We will be able to handle situations that used to baffle us.”
Our judgment will be aligned with a Higher Power so long as we incorporate this prayer into our lives, every thought and every action.
We will have control of our emotions and passions. We will not be controlled by them, but we’ll be able to make decisions from a spiritual place, even when dealing with mundane things.
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