Bob Haase’s Another Can Of Worms

Serenity Prayer

A long time ago I received a copy of the serenity prayer and it seemed to make so much sense that I have used it as a basis for making many of my decisions in life.  The short version of the serenity prayer says ” 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”. 

There have been a lot of people complaining and frustrated over the weather this last winter.  The weather is something we cannot change and we have to adapt to whatever mother nature gives us.  That could mean doing more things inside for which weather is not a factor, or for those that can do it they may consider spending those months in a warmer climate.  We cannot control the weather but we can control how we deal with the problem.

Besides the weather there are things that we have no control over that affect our everyday lives.  There is only so much time and so much anyone can do so it is important to concentrate on the things we can control and that can make a difference.  In order to do this we have to prioritize the things we want to do and concentrate on the things that we might be able to change.  If we spend most of our time working on things that we know we probably can’t change it gives us less time to work on the things we think we can change.

Professional athlete’s want to perform at their best and they concentrate their time becoming the best they can be.  There comes a time in their career when age or injuries take away their ability to complete at the level needed to win.  Sometimes it is just a slump and by working harder they can overcome their problems and  it is often difficult to know when to keep trying and when to call it quits.

When it comes to our health we never want to give up.  I have a friend that was notified last summer that he did not have much time to live and he needed to get his affairs in order. He was told that the problem was irreversible and it would not be much longer.  He never gave up fighting and he never gave up praying.  He was just given the news that his leukemia is in full remission and he has been getting better every day.  Sometimes when the stakes are high we need to fight a little longer an a lot harder. 

There are many thing in life that we give up on way to soon and sometimes we use this as an excuse not to do the things we should.  There are times when we need to write our legislators and fight to change some of the things that are wrong in our country, but we don’t even try and say “what’s the use of trying”.  Maybe we are overweight and are having problems keeping fit and we say “what’s the use of trying” and give up on maintaining our health and fitness.  The prayer says “have the courage to change the things I can” which means it may not be easy.

I know I cannot change the weather for the next week but I am not giving up.  I guess I will have to go to Mountain Home, Arkansas to fish for trout on the White River for a few days until the weather warms.  It is suppose to be close to 70 degrees there so I will accept that and fish there.  I mentioned that I used this prayer to help make decisions in my life and now you know what I meant by that.

Bob Haase is the host of “Outdoors Thursday” heard Thursday mornings at 9:10 a.m. on News-Talk 1450 KFIZ.