Prayer for serenity

Maybe I am different than the rest of you, but I have this habit of trying to change the people, places and things around me.

You know what I mean, don't you? If my husband would just... If work was just... If my car would just... These are all the beginnings of sentences which may indicate that you, too, may need this prayer...

This habit came to the attention of my sponsor (maybe it was me constantly calling and whining about things....). I am sure someone (perhaps, my ex-husband?) talked with her about it... Okay, maybe not... Maybe it was me calling and complaining all the time... Is this the part about being honest and/or facing reality? Or is this the part of accepting? I get those so confused sometimes...

She told me to say the serenity prayer with a little bit of a twist. She said to say it this way:

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 that's me.

She said that accepting things we cannot change is one of the most difficult things that we have to learn to do. It seems I am not the only one with this problem.

She said having the courage to change the things we can is not a one time thing. We must practice this every day or our disease will return.

Having the wisdom to know that you can only change yourself puts us in a position of making sure we are not taking on more than we can handle. If we try to control everything around us, our life will quickly spiral out of control and we will return to using.

I thought she was nuts. I did not have a problem with control. I had a problem with the people, places and things around me! What was she thinking?!?

However, I went ahead and did it for a week. As always, I would try out her "crazy" ideas for a week and report on the results. This was going to be easy! I knew that praying to change me would not solve my problems because I was convinced my problems were caused by others.

A week later, many things had changed and not one of them was another person, a place or a thing. The only thing that changed was me! Problem solved! I had to go into that meeting and, once again, tell her she was right. I hate it when other people are right!!!! (I can, however, report that I am getting better at admitting when I am wrong...)

If you are having difficulty with people, places and/or things, this may be the prayer for you. Anyway, try it for a week or two and see what happens! If nothing happens, then you have spent a week or two trying something new and learned something. If something does happen, you have spent a week or two improving yourself and learned something. Either way, its a win/win situation! You still get to learn something!