The serenity meme

I've been attributing the serenity prayer to Reinhold Niebuhr for a few years now. But it may be that the attribution is wrong according to this post and the article it points to. Language Log � The serenity meme: "quotation-hunter extraordinaire Fred Shapiro has uncovered evidence undermining the long-held attribution of 'The Serenity Prayer' to the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr's family originally claimed that he composed the prayer in the summer of 1943, but Shapiro has uncovered variations on the theme going back to 1936 in various American publications"
It's also an interesting study in textual transmission and begs a number of questions, one the more interesting and perhaps important is whether the meaning is essentially changed. It also shows the power of structural devices in speech and writing. It may be worth looking at these variants and then think about the gospels too...

Below are ten variants of the prayer cited in Shapiro's article, with the final one from 1943 being Niebuhr's preferred version, according to his daughter. I've arranged them in tabular form so that the formula is more obvious. What God is being asked to grant consists of three noun phrases, which we can label SERENITY, COURAGE, and WISDOM. Note that in a few of these early cases, COURAGE actually precedes SERENITY; I've marked these with (1) and (2) to indicate the actual order of the NPs in the source texts.

O God, give us	serenity to accept what cannot be helped (2)	courage to change what must be altered (1)	and	insight to know the one from the other	1936
we may have	an understanding and serenity to face what cannot be changed (2)	the courage to change what should be altered (1)	and	the wisdom to recognize one from the other	1938
oh God, give me	serenity to accept that which cannot be changed	courage to change that which can be changed	and	wisdom to tell the one from the other	1939
God give me	serenity to accept things I cannot change	the courage to change those I can	and	the wisdom to know the difference	1940
we must have	the serenity to accept what we cannot change within ourselves	the courage to attempt to change what we can	and	the wit to know one from the other	1941
God, give me	serenity to accept what cannot be helped (2)	the courage to change what must be altered (1)	and	insight to determine one from the other	1941
try to develop	serenity to face that which cannot be changed (2)	courage to change that which can be changed (1)	and	insight to tell one from the other	1941
O God, give me	serenity to accept what cannot be changed	the courage to change what can be changed	and	the wisdom to know one from the other	1942
give me	the patience to accept those things which I cannot change	the courage to change those things which can be changed	and	the wisdom to know the difference	1942
God, give us	grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed	courage to change the things that should be changed	and	the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other	1943