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.

  – Reinhold Niebuhr

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.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did,
this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.

  – Reinhold Niebuhr

Version I
“God, please help me set a side everything I think I know about myself, the Twelve Steps, the Big Book, the meetings, my disease, and you God, so I may have an open mind and a new experience with all these things. Please let me see the truth.”

Version II
Dear God; Please set aside anything I think I know about myself, about my disease, about the Big Book, the 12 Steps, the Program, the Fellowship, the people in the fellowship, and all spiritual terms – especially you God; So that I may have an open mind and a new experience with all these things. Please help me see the Truth. Amen.

Version III
God, please help me set aside
everything I think I know about you,
everything I think I know about myself,
everything I think I know about others,
and everything I think I know about my recovery,
so I may have an open mind
and a new experience with these things
and come to know you better.
Please help me see the truth.

“God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!

– pg. 63 of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous (“The Big Book”).

“My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.”

– pg. 76 of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous (“The Big Book”).

NIGHT After meditation on the day just completed, “We ask God’s forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken”.

– pg. 86 of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous (“The Big Book”).

MORNING Before we begin our day, “we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives”.

– pg. 86 of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous (“The Big Book”).

MORNING In thinking about our day, “We ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or decision”.

– pg. 86 of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous (“The Big Book”).

MORNING We usually conclude the period of mediation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems. We especially ask for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no requests for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends.

– pg. 87 of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous (“The Big Book”).

ALL DAY As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day “Thy will be done.”

– pg. 87-88 of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous (“The Big Book”).

“Lord, make me a channel of thy peace
– that where there is hatred, I may bring love
– that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness
– that where there is discord, I may bring harmony
– that where there is error, I may bring truth
– that where there is doubt, I may bring faith
– that where there is despair, I may bring hope
– that where there are shadows, I may bring light
– that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather
to comfort than to be comforted –
to understand than to be understood –
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.
Amen”

– pg. 99 of the book, Twelve Steps And Twelve Traditions.

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

– Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4