The Wisdom of The Serenity Prayer

Release what’s not yours to carry. Own what’s yours to change. Find freedom in knowing the difference.

Reading the headlines, there are plenty of reasons to lose hope for tomorrow and slip into anxiety today. Warring nations. Rising prices. Teetering financial markets. Political upheaval.

And then there are the concerns closer to home. Caring for aging parents or grieving their loss. Wrestling with the difficulties of raising kids or the ache of being unable to have them. Enduring yet another flight delay on a work trip (hits home as I write this!) or the far heavier struggle of being unable to find work.

We all carry something.

So, what are we to do with all this stress, all these conflicts, all these struggles?

A framed copy of a prayer hanging in our family room as kids offers at least the right first step. Attending Christian schools, it was a prayer we learned there, too. Teachers echoed it again during my years at Saint Louis University.

For years, I’ve known the words, but only recently have I begun to more fully understand, and more fully embrace, the simplicity, wisdom and freedom within them:

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.

My friends, think about how much of our anxiety comes from fighting things we cannot change. Think of how often we read the headlines, watch the news, swipe through social media and spiral downward at the negativity of it all. Think how often we replay the words someone else muttered about us, the actions someone else took against us, or the past mistakes we’ve made.

We replay it. We wrestle with it. We lose joy over it.

And in doing so, we give yesterday’s pain power over today’s peace.

The Serenity Prayer does not invite us to become passive, wave some limp white flag and quit on life. Instead, it empowers us to let go of the litany of things outside our control and embrace the freedom of owning the things we can change.

We can offer an apology or stop waiting for one that isn’t coming.

We can apply for the job or use this chapter to pivot into something entirely new.

We can recommit to being fully present to the people we love or choose to be less hard on ourselves.

We can turn off the television, put down the phone, get back into nature, back into faith, back into actively living our lives.

The real challenge is not the headlines or our individual complexities. The real challenge is having the wisdom to recognize the difference between what is ours to carry and what was never ours to control. It’s also our greatest opportunity.

So today, what are you carrying that you need to release? What battle are you fighting that isn’t yours to win? And what is one thing within your control that deserves your courage today?

My friends, in a world that can feel as if it’s spinning out of control, ask for the serenity to accept what you cannot change, courage to take responsibility for what you can, and wisdom to know the difference.

Release what is not yours to control.

Own what is yours to change.

And discover the freedom that comes not from a life without pain, but from no longer giving yesterday’s pain the power to steal today’s joy.

Today is your day. Live Inspired.