THE SERENITY... To remember that this teenaged girl used to love me... even when she pushes my buttons... and screams, "WHY DO YOU HATE ME?!?!?!" at the top of her lungs at least once a day... while simultaneously refusing to leave my side long enough to let me pee...
THE COURAGE... to enter her room without a hazmat suit... to tell her that one day she WILL care about the effects of today's decisions... to deny her demands for GrubHub because, "THERE'S NOTHING TO EAT!!!!"... to teach her how to drive when she's angry enough to possibly crash on purpose to end it for both of us...
And...
THE WISDOM... to know that this is normal... that she actually loves me just as much as she did at 5... that she knows I love her even when she screams that I'm ruining her life... and that one day... one glorious, beautiful, heavenly day... you will grant me grandchildren to whom I will be able to whisper things like, "Your mom shouldn't make you clean your room... she told me only TERRIBLE mothers would do such a thing..." as I load them up with sugar before sending them home with this prayer written on a napkin for her to blow her nose in as she cries the next generation of, "Where am I going so wrong?!?!" tears.