God, grant: The beginning phrase in the Serenity Prayer indicates that God is the source of our serenity. The prayer trusts that our loving God will grant us serenity when we ask Him. "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."

Think about the difference between "God" without the comma, and "God," with the comma: "God grant me the Serenity" and "God, grant me the Serenity." Pray the Serenity Prayer with a slight pause where the comma is after God, and pray it without the pause as you probably hear the prayer recited. Does this make any difference to you as you think of personally talking to God?

If you do not "hear" the difference in your mind, think of it this way: "Father please give me the car keys" and "Father, please give me the car key." Which sounds more like a personal relationship request to you? We can pray the Serenity Prayer as a personal request to God that shows we have a personal relationship with God as our Higher Power; just as in some sense the father with the car keys to give is a smaller, limited higher power to the person who needs to borrow the car.

The Serenity Prayer is personal, because the one who needs serenity is "me," but that does not mean that I cannot also pray, "God, grant [fill in the name] the Serenity." We all know of people other than ourselves who need the Serenity Prayer answered in their lives. We can pray for them. Perhaps we need to pray that they will find the Serenity Prayer and the 12 Steps Program hold keys to serenity, sobriety, and success (even as we have found this to be true in our own lives).

Serenity means personal, inner, peace. God, grant the personal, inner peace I and others need today! We have found through our recovery program that we cannot find the serenity we seek apart from our Higher Power; therefore, we pray God, grant me the Serenity. We have found that God, our heavenly Father, will answer this prayer.