Dear God,
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Throughout my childhood, this serenity prayer was one of many prayers that we recited as a part of our structured spiritual development. It was one of those prayers that you just knew because you had to, but never gave extra thought to its deeper meaning. I've found lately that the lessons repeating themselves in my life sum up to the core virtues that are being requested in this prayer:
acceptance, courage, and wisdom.
It’s amazing how certain memories resurrect from the deepest parts of our past when triggered by current circumstances. It seems like whatever values that were instilled lay dormant until they require personal application.
I appreciate this prayer mainly out of a general love I have for the profundity that often accompanies simplicity. Some lessons appear so simply in our lives that we don’t catch the effectiveness until we’re forced to examine it. Sometimes our experiences push us to reflect where the deeper meanings in these seemingly simple messages are revealed at a certain time and in ways that are personally tailored to our individual perception.
From my reflections, I gathered that this prayer is the answer to the challenge we face with control - another topic that as of lately, can’t seem to leave the inner workings of my mind. Perhaps it’s because I'm in close proximity to people that don’t know how or where to let go of it. More control equals less freedom. And limited freedom is a reality that I have peacefully accepted as an inevitable consequence of dependency - a state, like every stage of life, comes with it’s fair share of pleasant advantages and irritating disadvantages.
I believe this prayer is profound because for some reason, one of the biggest personal challenges that plagues most humans is letting go of what we don’t have the power to change. We struggle with acceptance. And for those of us who don’t, it took a painful process to get to the point where we can peacefully accept what we must.
There is nothing wrong with control in itself. There never was. The problems arise from our inability to recognize exactly where we should and should not apply it. Knowing this is the difference between being an excellent planner and a control freak. It’s the difference between living a life filled with or without peace.
I recognized that the plea in this prayer is for the Creator of the universe to teach us how to manage our expectations by giving us the wisdom to know the difference between what (and who) we can and cannot control. Although I’m still learning to decipher the messages of divine direction, I believe we face unnecessary struggles when we operate as though we don’t need it.
We were given minds to make decisions from our free will.
We were given strength to execute those decisions as we see fit.
And the Wisdom that’s needed to help us navigate through life’s challenges, is freely available to those who seek it.
It doesn't mean every situation will be perfect. It doesn’t mean the answers will be certain.
It means that we can have the ability to discern which circumstances would be worth the application of our time and our energy.
The request in this prayer is from a heart that has come to terms with the fact that life’s challenges (both personal and collective) are inevitable. But with a guiding Light, we can learn to recognize the difference between the moments that require us to be still or to be bold.
When we are guided by the Wisdom of God, it always results in a feeling of indescribable peace:
Serenity.
Yeah I agree with this. We tend to forget about the lessons we learned along the way because we get so focused with everything that's going on in our lives. I feel that humans have trouble accepting some things in life because it's hard to accept that we have flaws. Especially when people grow up to become adults, it's like society automatically expects us to know how to act like an adult and be one. Why do we obsess so much over one mistake but overlook all the little things we achieved along the way? I think that acceptance can be difficult because people think that if they accept this vulnerable or jagged piece of themselves, that they will change or have to change. Change is a scary process to go through. It's like stepping in a dark cave with no light. You aren't sure what's will come out of it and if you will be able to get through it. But once they do, it will be a rewarding experience. And we as humans are going to that scary dark cave many times in our lives because we are constantly adapting to what's going on in our lives.