The Serenity Prayer – (Part 1) It’s Beginnings

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This is part one of a series about the Serenity Prayer. The Serenity Prayer is very well known and popular in all of the variations of 12-step programs. It is not an official part of any of these programs and it was certainly not included in the original publication of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. However, its ideas are  woven into the very fabric of the 12-step program.

In this first episode, (part one), I will be speaking about the origins of the serenity prayer, offers that it was erroneously attributed to, and the actual author. That was an American theologian by the name of Reinhold Niebuhr, who is said to have written prayer sometime in the early 1930s. I have found, however, the prayer written in a similar form my Niebuhr in a 1927 theological student newsletter. It is as follows:
 Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other.

The original, (as far as I know)
 text of the prayer, by Niebuhr, probably written a few years later, is as follows:
God, give us 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.

The Serenity Prayer has been attributed to many different authors, including a Sanskrit version as well as Aristotle, St. Augustine Augustine,  St. Francis of Assisi, and others. The version that is now seen and heard in the meeting rooms of the various 12-step programs is:
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.

In future episodes, go into detail about the meanings implied by the full version of the Serenity Prayer, as written by Reinhold Niebuhr.