A Prayer for the New Year

In lieu of a resolution, a prayer.

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 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

Apparently somewhere along the way, the serenity prayer was shortened (to fit on an embroidered pillow?) to the first stanza that we know now, to be chanted at meetings near and far. My pastor read this from the pulpit a few weeks back, one of the last ones in which I made it to big church. I knew then that I needed to make it my prayer for the new year.

And instead of embroidering it on a pillow, I have a much craftier, much more "me" project than that. Stay tuned.