Saturday, November 7, 2009

Serenity


Often in life I find myself repeating these few lines as a reminder:



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.


But I didn't know about the rest of the prayer until recently:

Living one day at a time;


Enjoying one moment at a time;


Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;


Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;


Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;


That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him


Forever in the next.


Amen.
--Reinhold Niebuhr

15 comments:

Debbie said...

I too have not ever heard the rest of that prayer. It is really good. I especially like the ending, "that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next." Thanks for sharing this. Blessings, Debbie

Ms.Daisy said...

Jillian,
I, too, have never heard the ending of the serenity prayer! Thanks for posting this on S.S. so that we all may know the "rest of the story!"

Charlotte said...

I had never heard the rest of the story either. Thank you for posting it.
Blessings,
Charlotte

My Slice of Heaven said...

I love the ending of this prayer, which I too did not know until now. Thank you so much for sharing!

Ginger~~Enchanting Cottage said...

You can include me in with the rest of the ladies, I never heard the end of the prayer until now. Thank-you for sharing this.
God Bless,
Ginger

RCUBEs said...

Who knew? We had been missing the best part of that prayer...especially that part: "Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next."
Thank you for sharing this. Have a great weekend and God bless.

Sally said...

Although Reinhold Niebuhr wrote the original prayer, William Spence is the author of the added section, published in 1953. Click here to see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer

God is good. Thanks for sharing.

Jillian's Bella Rosa Antiques said...

Thank you, Sally for the thoughts on who wrote the prayer. Either way, the point of my post today was that most of us have never even heard the rest and how wonderful it is. I'm glad I came across it while reading a daily devotion this week!

Musings of A Minister said...

For many years I have known and loved the first part of this. I never had heard the other part until now. I like it too!!!! Thanks for posting.

Sharlotte said...

I love this prayer...

Denise said...

Amen.

LV said...

Thank you for a great blessing through the prayer. Also, I happy you dropped by my place.

Cathy said...

Beautiful, thank you ~

Apron Senorita said...

It is a prayer I have tried to live by. The serenity prayer has been helping many friends and family of alcoholics. We try to carry this message to others as well.

Yoli :)

Joyce said...

Hummm......I like what Mr.Niebuhr has to say...and whoever else added onto his poem.
Loved those pretty roses too.
Be blessed,
Joyce