Morning Prayer

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 hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is,
not as I would have it:

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.

Lord God, there are so many things I cannot understand. I cannot comprehend the devestation and the loss of life, the suffering. Help me, guard me, keep me. Help those who cannot help themselves, guard those who are vulnerable, keep those who cannot be helped in this world.

We give thanks to you, heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ your dear Son, that you have protected us through the night from all danger and harm. We ask you to preserve and keep us, this day also, from all sin and evil, that in all our thoughts, words, and deeds we may serve and please you. Into your hands we commend our bodies and souls and all that is ours. Let your holy angels have charge of us, that the wicked one have no power over us.
Amen.*


*These are two classic prayers. The first is the serenity prayer by Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr. The second prayer is a prayer by Martin Luther -- it is his morning prayer. My cousin Fred tells me that it is the prayer that my great-grandparents prayed every morning at the breakfast table when my grandfather was a child. A beautiful prayer.