The Serenity Prayer
These cool mornings remind us that fall is approaching. They hold such a blessing as I sit outside on our screened porch with Jesus and the minutes turn quickly to hours.
While asking God for wisdom to pass along to our grands who currently on school athletic teams the Serenity Prayer came to mind.
According to Wikipedia, it was originally composed by Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in the early 1930s. It was used by the YWCA and then in the 40's adopted by AA.
“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.”
This is what I emailed the grands:
As athletes (and humans) it is so important to be able to pack away mistakes that were made (for at that moment, nothing can be done) and proceed to carry out the next task in the game at hand to the best of our ability.
But then as you prepare for the next competition you unpack the mistake and have the “courage to change” (if possible) what allowed the mistake to happen.
(Maybe it was caused by the distraction of your grandmother running up and down the sidelines in a shark costume. That’s a lot to deal with.)
I was thinking about things you can’t change-
1) Coaches
2) Teammates
3) Playing field and weather conditions.
4) Opponents.
5) Injuries
Then bingo! Those are the things I am going to pray for the next five weeks, because God is able to change any issues with those things or use what seems to be a problem for good! He will only change them in ways that bring him glory and bring others into a closer relationship with Him! Remember, even in the suffering there is purpose.
The Song
"Changed" Hannah Kerr
