Reading Between the Lines of the Serenity Prayer

@bethvogt

(With acknowledgement to Reinhold Neibuhr (1892-1971), who wrote the Serenity Prayer.)

God grant me the serenity

  Help me to stay calm. To not yell at my family no matter how much longer we’re quarantined together or say out loud all the snarky comments I’m thinking, even if I do think they’re funny.

  to accept the things I cannot change

  the requirement to wear masks when I’m outside, the downsizing of birthday celebrations, the inability to visit relatives in assisted living facilities, having to cancel graduation ceremonies and weddings and summer vacations  

courage to change the things I can

  my frustrated attitude when the days are too long and I the worry I wrestle with through the night, how this situation leaves me feeling helpless

  and wisdom to know the difference.

  Every day, minute by minute, as I hope and pray for governing authorities who make decisions affecting me and my family and my friends, I need your wisdom, God, to accept what I can’t change and to have strength to change what I can.

Living one day at a time,

  believing Your mercies are new every morning,

 enjoying one moment at a time,

  because there are still things to enjoy despite COVID-19, like laughter and a The Lord of the Rings movie marathon and Zoom coffee get-togethers with friends,

 accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

 hardships like standing six feet from a friend whose mother-in-law just died and not being able to hug her … the loss of a job … financial burdens … loneliness …

  taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it;

  I’m gonna admit this part is tough to pray because there are days I just want my way. Days I want things back the way they were before I ever heard the word “COVID-19”; 

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.

  Help me to somehow see with your perspective, God. To remember there is more to life than this season of illness. And help me to look past my own desire for happiness today and consider how I might help someone else in some small way.

Amen.

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