Acceptance of what life sends our way can often be quite difficult to deal with, especially when it’s not in alignment with our ego. For those like myself who have suffered greatly from addictions, that acceptance tends to frequently be even harder to deal with. There is a great paragraph that I found in my recovery from those addictions that has guided my journey to embracing acceptance a lot more in life. It appears on Page 417 of the 4th Edition of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and reads as follows:
“And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation – some fact of my life – unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and my attitudes.”
Finding acceptance with everything in life is a process for all of us though, whether we’ve suffered from addictions or not. By praying for it regularly, our lives can and will become filled with an incredible amount more of serenity. For this reason, I’ve rewritten the excerpt above into a prayer for everyone to use. If you should ever find yourself struggling with having this trait in any aspect of your life, I truly hope you will end up using this prayer to help you find more of it…
“Dear God, I know it’s said that acceptance can be the answer to all my problems in life. Well lately I have a problem that deals with __________________, and I haven’t been very serene because of it. I pray You help me to accept this problem as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this very moment. If nothing, absolutely nothing, truly happens in Your world by mistake, then please help me to come to acceptance by seeing and learning the lesson in this. I also ask that You help me to concentrate not so much on how I think this problem should be resolved, as on what needs to be changed in me and my attitudes. And thank you God for whatever path You end up guiding me on to get there. Amen.”
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson