May 23, 2014
I am teaching myself to slow down – taking time to treasure
my surroundings, my people and most of all, my God that has created this beautiful
life for me to live.
Ecclesiastes 3:12
New International Version (NIV)
I know that there is nothing
better for people
than to be happy and to do good while they live.
than to be happy and to do good while they live.
God wants us to be happy.
He wants us to live a life of serenity.
Sometimes I have done that much better than others. During the times that I have done it better,
have been the times that I have recited the “Serenity Prayer” to myself
throughout every day.
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot
change;
courage to change the things I
can;
and wisdom to know the
difference.
I grew up with this prayer posted at my grandparent’s house;
it has always been a staple of my life.
A few years ago, I was having a particularly hard time with something my
son was going through; I just wanted to rescue him from this bad situation he
was in. It was causing me anxiety and heartache, as I so badly wanted just to make
it all better. I decided to go to the
gym to hopefully relieve some stress over the racing scenarios in my head. I stopped at the store quickly to get a
bottle of water. Walking through the
parking lot I saw something sparkly on the ground. I started to walk past it, and then something
told me to go back and pick it up, and as picked it up and turned it over, I got
chills as I realized that it was a cross with the “Serenity Prayer” printed on
it. I knew right then that my son would
be okay. I knew that God was taking care
of him, as well as taking care of me with reminding me that I could do nothing
to change the situation. What I could do was have peace about it knowing
that God was in charge. I repeated that prayer
over and over again as I did my work out on the elliptical machine. I kept that cross in my car where I would see
it every time I get in to go somewhere.
Today, I am reminded that I need to put the cross in my new
vehicle. I have been remembering to
recite the prayer in my head, but it always warms my heart and puts a smile on
my face to visibly see the prayer in print, and each time I see this cross it
reminds me of how He saves us from all things…..even ourselves and our racing
minds.
I don’t have the rest of the prayer memorized, but, I want
to share it with you. It has amazing words to live by; the life that God
planned for each and every one of us. It
is not our job to worry and control, it is just our job to live peacefully as
we treasure all the moments we have been given, each and every one of them, day
by day; the difficult and the joyous times are all gifts from God. With His loving grace we will most certainly get
through them all!
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot
change;
courage to change the things I
can;
and wisdom to know the
difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the
pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful
world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all
things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in
this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
--Reinhold Niebuhr
Written by
Kelly Dobyns
Kelly Dobyns
This is a very powerful and freeing prayer. We think we should be able to fix everything but that is just not possible. We realize that we are not all powerful we then start to beat ourselves. I think Kelly came up with something when she started to recite this prayer daily. It is such a good reminder to be realistic about what we can and what we cannot do.
ReplyDeleteGod bless