“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change.

Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference”

If you have set foot in any recovery meeting I am sure you have heard this prayer, maybe you even say it on a regular basis. Have you ever stopped to think about this prayer? In this post I am going to explain exactly what this prayer means to me.

“God”….the very first word speaks volumes. There is a GOD this prayer does not say higher power it says GOD! So all in all God must be the one and only Higher Power. The next part states “grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change.” The merriam-webster dictionary defines grant very well….

1
a : to consent to carry out for a person : allow fulfillment of <grant a request>

 

b : to permit as a right, privilege, or favor 

: to bestow or transfer formally.
 
Now we must also define serenity. According to the merriam-webster dictionary it means the quality or state of being serene. Now, you may ask what is serene well once again we look at the merriam-webster dictionary. This definition is marked by or suggestive of utter calm and unruffled repose or quietude. 
So here we are asking GOD to permit us to be utterly calm in situations that we can not change!!! I will admit that is a lot of things for me!
 
Moving on is “Courage to change the things I can”. Have you ever been in situations where you know you could have done one thing different and it would have changed the whole thing? I have learned that courage to change the things I can is just that Courage to change myself, no one else. After all, if you try to change someone chances are it will not work. So here we also are asking GOD to permit ourselves to have the courage we need to change what we need to change in ourselves.
 
“And wisdom to know the difference.” Well, I have basically explained the difference but there are times when all you think is well, if he/she hadn’t done_____I wouldn’t have ____. We are not perfect, but the more we are in this program the better we get! We are a program of progress not perfection. This is where wisdom comes in because there are times we can’t tell if the situation calls for utter calm or the courage we need to change!