The Other Serenity Prayer
God, grant me the serenity
To stop beating myself up for not doing things perfectly,
The courage to forgive myself because I’m working on doing better,
And the wisdom to know that You already love me just the way I am.
Eleanor Brownn
To finally come to self acceptance. To accept and be comfortable in my own skin. That is one of the keys to life isn’t it?
To be done with perfectionism in all it’s forms. To learn to practice imperfection in all things in life. I’ve heard it said that in Japanese art when an object like a jar is broken they fill in the cracks with gold. The brokenness and imperfection is what makes the object even more valuable and beautiful. May I see imperfection in that way in my own life. As Leonard Cohen said, “Everything has a crack in it, that’s how the light gets in.”
To forgive myself because I’m in process and it’s all learning and I’ll never be done learning. The thought that life is one big experiment, frees me to experiment, explore and have fun. And I am working on doing better, I always want to improve and to learn more for the joy of it rather than having to prove anything to anyone or to get in good with God, but to become fully myself.
What I’m discovering in deeper ways in my life, is the greatest wisdom in life – is to believe, know, experience and soak in the love of God and to allow that love to overflow in my life so that I will love well – others and even myself. It’s a powerful truth to realize that God loves and accepts me just as I am, just the way I am. Grace is to accept the fact of your acceptance by God, no matter what.
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