Lord knows I’ve tried to pray myself out of my rushaholic ways. Several of my mentors are people who’ve transformed their lives through the spiritual focus of Alcoholics Anonymous. One taught me that first part of the real Serenity 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.”
I printed out the AA phrase and taped versions of it to my computer, the dashboard of my minivan, and my bathroom mirror at home. For even though I know that God is with me always, so is the old habit of worrying about other people’s expectations and opinions of me.
This little catchphrase is the spiritual aide I need to “let go and let God.” It’s become a spiritual discipline in the way theologian Richard Foster describes spiritual disciplines: something that creates enough of a space in our lives for God to enter in and change us.
This message is adapted from “Changed by Prayer” written by Mary Lynn Hendrickson in the July/August 2010 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.
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