Every person grappling with a substance abuse disorder has felt the suffocating thought of going without their drug or alcohol support, and the emotional state most closely associated with this is fear. The decision to get clean is the first constructive choice many addicts have made in years. “courage to change the things I can.”Ĭhange is hard, and the Serenity Prayer acknowledges this. Acknowledging that some things are beyond changing, at least for the moment, and learning to let go is part of the acceptance and courage it takes to succeed in recovery. Neither can the current feelings of formerly close friends and loved ones whose relationships have been strained by a person’s struggles with addiction. The past may be full of regrets, but it can’t be changed. This is a wise inclusion because recovery is so often a process of letting go of the uncontrolled trouble in a recovering addict’s life. Much of the wisdom in the Serenity Prayer is in how quickly its words set the mood for calm and rest.ĭeconstructing the Serenity Prayer’s first line further, it goes on to invoke the concept of things that can’t be changed. The difficult early days of sober living can feel like a storm to continuously fight against. The first line of this prayer asks God for serenity to resist the emotional turmoil that so often travels with addiction disorders. The continued growth of AA has demanded a more ecumenical approach, and members today are asked only to accept a Higher Power, which can be any guiding force, including the original AA concept of God. In the original version, God was specifically the Christian God, more specifically in the Protestant tradition. The Serenity Prayer opens with a powerful start.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.” Serenity: Accepting What Cannot Be Changed Understanding the meaning of the Serenity Prayer is crucial to getting inside the culture and mindset of the international AA movement and to finding mindfulness in serenity, experiencing personal growth through prayer and coping with life challenges without drugs and alcohol. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, A less denominational prayer worked its way into the AA canon until it found its current form, which this article will use: As AA grew and spread among people of more diverse faith traditions, the sectarian language fell out of the most widely circulated versions. The direct appeal to Christian faith is unsurprising from Niebuhr, who was a Christian theologian first and foremost. Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”

According to Niebuhr’s daughter, the original version of the prayer her father drafted in 1950 ran like this: There are enough versions of the Serenity Prayer that it’s easy to get lost studying its message. Given its impact, it’s worth knowing more about one of the world’s most influential prayers. More than 2 million people in 180 countries currently participate in AA, so it’s not surprising that the prayer has proliferated worldwide. One of these is the Serenity Prayer, which is a mantra that’s gone through several versions since Reinhold Niebuhr drafted the original in 1950. The 12-step program has grown into a global culture, with institutions and traditions all its own. The AA approach to recovery has been going strong in the United States, and even worldwide, since it was conceived in 1935.

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Serenity prayer verse