I first encountered the serenity prayer when I was in high school. It was one of my mom’s favorites. Here’s the version I recall my mom reciting all the time:
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.
Short but powerful. I didn’t realize until many decades later, however, that was only half the prayer. Nobody told me there was a second verse! Moreover, I learned the prayer was authored by Reinhold Niebuhr, a renown American theologian and social commentator whom I had studied in college. Here’s the second verse:
Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
There’s a lot packed into those couple verses. Let’s dissect them a bit:
- Recognize that suffering is a part of life
- Accept that fact, but don’t get enslaved by it
- Live in the present: one moment at a time, one day at a time
- Employ God’s wisdom to see things more clearly
- Focus on things that are important
- Employ God’s courage to do His will
As it happens, those six items are essentially what’s taught in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy.
Who knew?