Serenity, Courage, and Wisdom

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

I must have read that a million times in the past, especially over the past 5 years, but today I saw that written on a plaque on my wall at work and really thought about what it means. I pulled out the trusty Websters and wanted to see what the definition of serenity was.
Serenity: composure, calm, peacefulness. (ok I can grasp that)
Then I was going to look up courage and I had to leave last night and didn't finish this post and this morning I picked up a book that I read a page out of every morning, and the topic for today is courage. Strange how that happens so often now.
The first sentence was:
"Our newly found faith serves as a firm foundation for courage in the future."
It also had the definition of courage: being brave, having a purpose, having spirit.
It said that "courage is an attitude, one of perseverance."
That is something I need to work on, especially when things are uncomfortable or unfamiliar.
Ok now for wisdom: knowledge of what is true or right coupled with good judgement.
That kinda struck me as funny because Neva asked her Sunday school class once if the story they were studying was real or made up and now my 4 year old asks me all the time if the story I am reading him is real and if it is true.
Well what did I learn from all this? Serenity is something that can be felt, and I know of one day that serenity was felt by me personally. A Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago. Courage is something that I am going to have to get better with if I am going to keep stepping out of my box, and wisdom is something that comes with time and teaching and I can't get that over night.