<P> The Serenity Prayer is the common name for a prayer written by the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892--1971). The best - known form is: </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> Niebuhr, who first wrote the prayer for a sermon at Heath Evangelical Union Church in Heath, Massachusetts, used it widely in sermons as early as 1934 and first published it in 1951 in a magazine column . The prayer spread both through Niebuhr's sermons and church groups in the 1930s and 1940s and was later adopted and popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve - step programs . </P> <P> The prayer has appeared in many versions . Reinhold Niebuhr's versions of the prayer were always printed as a single prose sentence; printings that set out the prayer as three lines of verse modify the author's original version . The most well - known form is a late version, as it includes a reference to grace not found before 1951: </P>

God give me the power to accept the things i can not change