Acceptance Prayer

I am posting the following Acceptance Prayer because it is a precursor to forgiveness. I have to accept what has happened in my life and the people who have offended me. Please don't mistake me, acceptance doesn't mean that I have to like or condone unacceptable things or behavior. It doesn't mean that I lay down and let people abuse me as a martyr of forgiveness. Absolutely not! But I do need a level of acceptance to be able to forgive and truly move on from hardship and injustices. This is a lead in to my last post on forgiveness titled, "How to Forgive?" Don't miss it!!

Acceptance Prayer

From the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Acceptance is the answer to all of my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation - some fact of my life - unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God's world my mistake. Unless I accept life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.