Episode 16 - How The Powerful Serenity Prayer Can Bring More Peace to a Busy Mom’s Life
How The Powerful Serenity Prayer Can Bring More Peace to a Busy Mom’s Life
Hey Mama who right about now just might need to post the Serenity Prayer in several places around her home…
How would you like to experience more peace, more serenity in your day-to-day MomLife?
You may be familiar with the words to the Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr
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 was in Vermont recently, already enjoying the beauty of a cabin in the woods, all cozy inside with a roaring fire, when a snowstorm added to the perfect winter scene. And I thought back to my mom days and snow days.
Generally speaking, we loved snow days in my home. And, especially as I look back, they were so magical. The kids would have an unanticipated day off from school! There would be extra pajama-time. I would cook up a nice hearty breakfast. And we’d get the kids dressed up in snow attire, open the door, and out we’d go to build a snowman, make snow angels, run around the backyard with Bailey the dog…and within an hour, we’d head back in a little cold and wet, ready for hot cocoa.
A few hours later, we’d head out to the local park for sledding. A couple of blocks away, the street was closed off so we could sled all the way to the bottom of the hill, without any concern of car traffic.
After a couple of hours or maybe less, we trudged home for more hot cocoa and fresh homemade chocolate chip cookies.
I’ve talked here a lot about what we picture and the scenario I’ve just told you is all true at one time or another.
But there are some other moments within those scenes I haven’t shared. Here are a couple of other scenarios mixed into the snowy, blurry flurry.
- One of those snowy mornings, one child was feverish, sad, and needed me at the same time my two other young ones were begging to go outside!! What’s a mom to do?
- Another one of those snow days, I didn’t want to go to the sledding hill. It was still freezing and snow was still falling hard. My kids and I wrangled over this for a few hours until they wore me down. We got to the hill…and it was too cold and wet. I may have stomped home in a hissy fit.
The list goes on. I have four kids. They span 12 years, so there were lots of snow day scenarios.
Going back to the Serenity Prayer…
There were things I couldn’t change or couldn’t be helped. For example, there was a snow day. A child was sick. I had a deadline and children awaiting a wonderful snow day. These were unchangeable facts. Acceptance was in order.
There were things I could change or alter. I could explain to my kids that I had to tend to my sick child and we would have to map out a different type of snow day. I could’ve said, “No!” to my kids because the conditions were just not conducive to fun sledding. These adjustments required some level of courage and a certain level of strength and conviction.
But how do we gain the wisdom, the insight to know the difference?
1. Take a few deep breaths and allow ourselves a moment to think.
2. Ask ourselves a couple of questions.
What about this circumstance is truly out of my control that I need to accept?
What do I have the courage to alter, change, or adjust so I feel less frustrated, upset, or stressed?
3. Train and not just try to experience some level of serenity as we apply this reality and prayer to our daily stressful situations.
(If you want to know about training versus trying, listen to Episode 15 of the MomVision podcast.)