26I myself find more bitter than death
is the woman who is a great snare,
whose heart is a great net,
whose hands are a great chain.
One who is good-before-God escapes from her,
but the one who sins is caught by her.
27Look, this is what I’ve found,
– Qoholet said-
adding one thing to another
to find a conclusion,
28which my heart sought further
but did not find.
I found one human being among a thousand,
but a woman among these I didn’t find.
29 Look at this alone,
I found that God made humanity upright,
but they have sought many schemes.
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.