You can read more about the history and context of the Serenity Prayer at Wikipedia & Grokipedia.
It was originally written by Reinhold Niebuhr in the 1930s…
“The victorious man in the day of crisis is the man who has the serenity to accept what he cannot help and the courage to change what must be altered.”
…morphed into…
“Oh, God, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and insight to know the one from the other.”
…and further evolve into…
“O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other.”
…which was adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous in 1941, before finally entering the public consciousness in the 50s as…
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Whichever way you prefer to phrase it, it is a succinct and pithy way to sum up stoicism and the “Rules to the Game of Life” in just a few words.
And I personally love it.
But like most “simple” things, it is ridiculously hard to do.
But if it were easy, everybody would be doing it.
It’s the “hard” that makes it formidable, and thus exclusive.
Photo borrowed from Wikipedia. Credit: Jerry “Woody” from Edmonton, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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