“What keeps me sane the most is honestly, the Serenity Prayer.” (Bryce Dallas Howard)
I was in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting one evening when a person said they really struggled with the Serenity Prayer and that they thought that most who said it were fake and didn’t truly practice it on a daily basis. For those who might not know this prayer, it goes as follows, “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.” This prayer is generally spoken at almost every single 12 Step meeting on the planet and indeed, the most challenging part of it is differentiating between the things one can change and the things one can’t. Early on in my own recovery, I was such a control freak that I thought I could change just about everything and everybody. That stemmed much in part due to how long I had suffered from multiple addictions because as an active addict, it was extremely hard to accept anything ever being out of my control. Usually I just exerted more and more effort to change the things that didn’t fit my expectations. So, on some level, when I began my path to recovery from all my addictions, I was as this person suggested, somewhat fake. I just said the prayer, but really wasn’t living it. Yet the more I worked my recovery, the closer I grew to God, and the closer I grew to God, the more I began to actually see the things God wanted me to work on changing and the things God wanted me to accept were out of my control. And somewhere along the way, I realized the words behind the Serenity Prayer are always going to be evolving, so long as I continue seeking God’s will in every part of my life. Because the more I have, the more I seem to receive the necessary guidance on how to apply this simple prayer to every single part of my life.
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.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
