The Serenity Prayer for Parents and Children

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. Amen. By Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
God has really been speaking to me through this prayer for the last few days. First about us as parents praying this prayer for ourselves. As parents, when our children are faced with adversity of any kind we have the tendency to swoop in and fix their problems (self included!). If we never allow our children to problem solve on their own then they will never learn this life tool for themselves, I also believe that in some children it will give way to low confidence, low self-esteem, and timidity. As stated in the previous blog entry, we need to pray a spirit of Boldness over our children. We need to encourage them first to pray about the problem (the Serenity Prayer would come in here good), then encourage them to solve the problem themselves first. Then if the problem becomes more than they can handle, that is when we should step in, and of course their are problems that are not for our children to handle, we need to pray for discernment over the problem. We are our children's spiritual covering, God placed us in authority over them, which is why it is so important to keep our children covered in prayer. By doing so we can defeat the enemy and his plans to steal, kill, and destroy. The enemy hates a praying parent because we have power through God and His word. We also need to pray for a spirit of Boldness for ourselves, in our parenting, and in speaking the word over our children.
Second, the Serenity Prayer is also an excellent prayer for our children to pray for themselves. For children, the abbreviated form of the prayer that is mostly used will be easier for them to learn: "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." For them to understand what they are praying you can break the verse down and explain it to them as follows: (this is my interpretation, God may reveal something more to you.)
1. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
explanation: There are somethings in this world we have to give to God and He will handle it as He wills. We can pray about it, but it is not ours to do something about it.
example: Your friends parents are getting a divorce and your friend is very sad about it. You cannot change the fact that they have chosen to divorce but you can be there for your friend and you can give it to God and pray for the family. Only He can change the situation if it is His will and the parents submit to His will because God gave us a free will.
2. Courage to change the things I can.
explanation: God may speak to you or you may have a pull toward something to change or make a difference in, and if God calls us he will equip us and give us the courage to accomplish His will.
example: There is a classmate that does not have any friends and is sad all the time. God may speak to you or you may really feel like you need to try and be their friend. This is something you can change and God will give you the courage to go up to that person and extend friendship to them and also the words to speak life into their life.
3. And wisdom to know the difference.
explanation: If we pray about it, God will let us know if it is something we can change or not. He is all knowing, which means He knows better then we do.
example: When I taught my Children's Church kids "How to hear the voice of God" by Becky Fisher, they learned that when we get a thought in our mind, or a feeling about something, a good way to know if it is from God is by what is called the Red, Yellow, and Green light like a traffic light. Red light is a yucky, scratchy feeling inside, this means Gods is telling us its not from Him. Yellow light is a confusing feeling, not sure about it, God is saying we need to stop and pray about it until we get a Red or Green light from Him. Sometimes our flesh is involved here, either it is from God and our flesh doesn't want to do it or it is not from God but our flesh really wants to do it. Last is the Green light a good, happy, or like going over the hill on a roller coaster feeling (if you like that feeling! ha ha). This means that God is saying go for it I'm preparing your way!
This word and revelation was encouraging and an eye opener for me I hope it will be for you too. Together we can make a difference in our children's life by allowing God to flow in and through us!
Blessings,
April Thomas