From the pamphlet titled "Acceptance: The Way to Serenity and Peace of Mind"
p.10
"God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; and Wisdom to know the difference."- Reinhold Niebuhr
You simply ask God to give you the ability to take people and things as they are, if you cannot change them. We can very seldom change people, though we can change ourselves. We ask God, further, to enable us to convince ourselves that we would not have things otherwise, even if we could. Only God is powerful enough to control all things, and he seems to prefer to make some things come out right without changing them.
In practice: face up to that problem that is driving you wild and say, "Is there anything I can do about it right now, today?" If there is, do it! Don't put it off another minute. If there is nothing you can do about it today, accept it and forget it.
You don't get over a 20-foot wall by banging your head against it- you just get a headache. If you sit down in the shade of the wall and say, "Maybe I'm better off on this side, after all," you may be sure that God will make things turn out better for you and for everyone else. This ability of His to make things work out for the best is known as Divine Providence, or "The Kindness of God."
-- Edited by jonijoni1 on Thursday 23rd of December 2010 04:00:19 PM
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~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
I love this reading and only heard the whirling dervish metaphor from that pamphlet yesterday morning for the first time when I chaired on acceptance and no expectations. I was with my family over the weekend which always gives my program grist for my recovery mill.
