The Serenity Prayer


Many people are familiar with the first three lines of this famous prayer, but most do not know the rest of the prayer, or the story behind it...


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 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.
Amen.

This prayer was written by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 - 1971), who saw the Great Depression, two worlds wars, the Holocaust, and the terrors of Naziism and Communism. He explored various political philosophies, but came to the conclusions which are evident in the prayer above.

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