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.
Author: Reinhold Niebuhr
The Serenity Prayer is actually an explicitly Christian prayer. AA custom only uses the first part, so most people don't know the complete prayer.
AA began from explicitly Christian principles (the Oxford Group's Four Absolutes). For anyone interested, AA Comes of Age is a great historical overview. Of course AA changed and evolved over the years and by the time the Big Book was written, the dilemma of how to include atheists and other non-Christians was pretty much settled with the phrase put in italics in the 3rd step. Thank God!! LOL
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, courage to change the only person I can, and the wisdom to realize this is ALL my affairs."
__________________
~Your Higher Power has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
Thanks Lee,i HAVE READ MORE IN DEPTH OF THE oXFOD GROUP AND WRITINGS OUT of Wikopedia on both BillW and Dr.Bob!...Yes amen our our 3rd step "wording" it certainly allowed a consensus of thought of "your own concept"I was a little surprised when I read Dr. Bob's statement in the BB on page 181 of the 3rd edition"(DR bOB'S nIGHTMARE)If you think you are an atheist,an agnostic a skeptic,or have any other form of intellectual pride which keeps you from accepting what is in this book ,I feel sorry for you. (ends with your Heavenly Father will never let you down)have to read whole paragraph??Anyway thanks for info ,hope you are well!
__________________
Selfishness-self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles.
