Dear Friends on our Journey ~

My name is Mari and I am a grateful compulsive overeater in recovery. I'd like to tell you about one of the most special things in my life .... something that there is never a day that goes by without my saying at least a part of it. It is my mantra .... and words I try to live by.

I believe that one could go through an entire lifetime without any guidebooks, any literature, any sermons, anything whatsoever if they internalized and lived by the Serenity Prayer. That is a very broad statement and I make it as honestly as I know how. It means that much to me!

The Serenity Prayer was just "another" prayer ... another meditation ... when I began my journey to recovery. But in working the steps and doing my personal inventory and looking at the life I had led in the past through a microscope, I'm not sure I could have made it without this prayer.

I have done a lot of writing on the serenity prayer. I invite you to share your thoughts with me about it. I'd like to know how it has helped some of you get through the rough spots. It just says so much to us. Each word carries special meaning to me ... and I hope I can convey that to you through Parts One through Five in this Web Site Collection on the Serenity Prayer.

Grant me the
SERENITY
to accept the things
I cannot change ~
COURAGE
to change the
things I can;
and the
WISDOM
to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as the
pathway to peace.
Taking 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 forever in
the next.

By Reinhold Neibuhr

Part One of the Serenity Prayer which follows will be about "Grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change." I had often wondered why the word "serenity" was chosen here. Now I know.

Dear God,
I pray again ~
as I so often do ~
that I might have the
serenity
to accept the things
I simply cannot
and should not
change.

Love,
Mari
Marisok@aol.com
The Recovery Group

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