Son,

What has become known as the Serenity Prayer was actually written by a protestant minister in 1934. Reinhold Niebuhr wrote the prayer as a routine closing for a Sunday Sermon. The Prayer has been condensed and cleansed of the reference to Jesus. This was useful to use the prayer as a method of inclusiveness. The shortened version does not eliminate non-Christians. Jesus would approve.

Here is one version of the original:

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.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time.

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.

Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.

Trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will.

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen

Reinhold Niebuhr

Pretty cool, don’t you think?

Dad