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At a meeting last night, someone read the second part of the serenity prayer, which I had never heard before. Not sure if this is common knowledge or not. Actually the Wikipedia page for the Serenity Prayer is really fascinating: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer
Anyway, here is the full prayer in its original form, with the second part:
Oh wow .. that is so funny because this is something I heard at another meeting and I looked it up .. LOL!! Thank you for the share I really needed to remember that today!! That second part is really what I needed to hear today.
Hugs P :)
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Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.- Maya Angelo
***Not my words - Just some info I found on the author of the prayer:
Note About The Serenity Prayer's Real Author You'll find many references online to some not being sure who really wrote the above prayer, some claiming that Reinhold Niebuhr was not actually the author. Many have researched it, including trying to find out if it even goes back to 500 A.D. Despite all the research, though, it still goes back to Niebuhr being the author.
It certainly appears that Reinhold Niebuhr did indeed write The Serenity Prayer. Niebuhr himself discusses the prayer and how it came about it in his book, The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr: Selected Essays and Addresses. You can read the page yourself via amazon.com here if you wish: The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr: Selected Essays and Addresses, page 251. Niebuhr states,
... The embarrassment, particularly, was occasioned by the incessant correspondence about a prayer I had composed years before, which the old Federal Council of Churches had used and which later was printed on small cards to give to soldiers. Subsequently Alcoholics Anonymous adopted it as its official prayer. The prayer reads: 'God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to dintinguish the one from the other.' ...
In addition, Niebuhr's daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, wrote an entire book about her father's prayer, The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War, that explores the circumstances around which her father wrote this prayer, the wide range of versions of this prayer, and the real essence of the prayer's meaning. She quotes The Serenity Prayer on page 277. NPR (National Public Radio) interviewed Sifton about her book, which you can listen to via NPR's website: The Serenity Prayer: Faith in Times of Peace and War.
I just received a copy of the whole prayer about two weeks ago and I just fell madly in love with it. I say the whole thing every night before bed, just because, I love it. It puts me at ease... Sometimes when I become angry thinking about people and their choices, especially the people I work with in social work.. I just say in my head.. "taking this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it." I absolutely love it. I love everything about it. Thanks for sharing it on here for many to see, I'm sure there are more like you and I who did not know the whole version til recently. I feel like it was written directly for me.
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Michelle!
No one can take away your peace of mind unless you let them.
