As I walked today I recited the Serenity Prayer. It’s a prayer that I’ve used for many years. Most people know the shorter version of the prayer but I have found the long version to be very comforting. I half-dozen years ago following serious bout with depression my spiritual advisor shared the long version with me.
God grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And the 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 he did, this sinful world as it is,
Not as I would like it.
Trusting that he will make all things right,
If I surrender to his will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this world
And supremely happy in the next.
Reinhold Niebuhr, Theologian