Serenity Prayer

I like the Serenity Prayer because it reminds me of who I can and cannot control. For simplicity's sake, I am going to reprint it here.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to know the difference.

The only person you can change is yourself. You cannot change anyone else. We have free will all of us. We can attempt to influence others but if the other person does not want to change then we cannot make them change. If we have tried to influence, we have asked and the other refuses to change then the best thing that we can do is adapt or decide to distance ourselves from that person. For example you are a more lenient parent and your spouse is a more strict parent. Isn't it easier to allow each to parent in your own way then to argue about which way is better? Children adapt to differing parenting styles. It is the inconsistency within one parent that is difficult for the child and makes things difficult with that parent. Remember that the only person you can control is yourself. To try to control others only leads to anger, disagreements and pain. Eventually the pain gets to be so much that the marriage becomes destroyed, the friendship becomes destroyed or the parent/child relationship becomes destroyed.