God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
I cannot change that I am an alcoholic. I cannot become not an alcoholic. I cannot change the past. I cannot go back in time and undo the things I did when I was living the life of untreated alcoholism. People across the globe who I do not even know have done things and will continue to do things which I do not agree with, things I do not like, things I would never do. I cannot, even by trying really, really hard, make them stop doing them. There are so many things I cannot change that I could easily become discouraged to the point of doing nothing to change anything.
the courage to change the things I can
I do not have to suffer from alcoholism. I can recover. I do not have to live completely and forever in the wreckage of my past. I can make the effort to clean up that wreckage and even though that effort does not erase the past, it does change the present and it does change me. I can stop using the wrong thoughts and the wrong actions of others to justify my own wrong thoughts and wrong actions. I can continue to do the next right thing and know that it will have a positive effect even if I cannot see the immediate result.
and the wisdom to know the difference
Wisdom comes through experience. Sometimes I have to try to change things which I cannot change to find the difference. Also, there are a great many things which I could change but should not. How do I find this difference? I need the eleventh step on daily basis and I need to check myself pretty carefully when I start to believe that I know God's will for other people.