The Twelve Steps and Serenity Prayer
The Serenity Prayer was originally part of a sermon by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in the 1930s. In the ’40s, it was adopted as an anthem of Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s not very long, and it sometimes becomes rote, but it reminds all of us, addicted or not, that we are not in charge of everything, nor will we ever be; but we are in charge of some things, and those that we are, we need to face up to.
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
If I were to add anything to this powerful prayer, it would be “ . . and the patience to see it through.
When Bill W. and his doctor put together the Twelve Steps of Recovery in the 1930, they probably had no idea how far those ideals would go.
The “Anonymous” movement was birthed to help Bill W. recover from alcoholism, but the Twelve Steps are a genius spiritual solution to nearly all addictions, if an addict is willing and able to apply them — “nearly” because some physical addictions —such as crystal meth — so affect the brain there seems to be almost no way back.
The Twelve-Step Program is now applied to dozens of different addictions on every continent in myriad languages, a tribute to its success as a universal antidote to addiction.
The Twelve Steps of Recovery
Step One: “We admitted we were helpless over the problem — that our lives have become unmanageable.”
Step Two: “We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Step Three: “We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood God.”
Step Four: “We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”
Step Five: “We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.”
Step Six: “We were entirely ready to have God remove those defects of character.”
Step Seven: “We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.”
Step Eight: “We made a list of all persons we have harmed, and became willing to make amends to all of them.”
Step Nine: “We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”
Step Ten: “We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.”
Step Eleven: “We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.”
Step Twelve: “Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”
The Steps remain as they were originally conceived, but they have been turned to many compulsions. For a list of organizations that deal with some, go here.