God of love, we’ve heard the teach­ing: Wives must hon­or and obey!
Yet your scrip­tures say sub­mis­sion doesn’t on­ly go one way.
For as wives are called to hon­or, so are hus­bands called to be
Christ-like as they serve their part­ners, lov­ing sac­ri­fi­cial­ly.

We have heard of preach­ers preach­ing: You should stay! God hates di­vorce!
God, we know of vic­tims, suf­fer­ing, who’ve been told to stay the course.
Yet it’s those who are abus­ive who have torn their vows in two;
For their vi­olence and ex­cus­es cause great pain and an­ger you.

God, we’ve heard the old, old say­ing, Bet­ter stay with what you know.
So we pray for wo­men won­der­ing, Should I stay or should I go?
When they ask, Will oth­ers help me? Who will come and stand by me?—
May they know we love them dear­ly. We will be there; they will see!

God, we’ve heard a world of teach­ings; show us what is real­ly true—
That you weep with those who suf­fer as they dai­ly face abuse.
You want cou­ples to be lov­ing and to list­en, share and give.
This is mu­tu­al sub­mis­sion; this is how we’re called to live.

By your Spir­it, may we wit­ness to your peace­ful, lov­ing way.
May we share your love and jus­tice ev­ery mo­ment, ev­ery day.
May the peo­ple hurt by vio­lence know they’re val­ued, by your grace,
And may all who are in cri­sis find a re­fuge in this place.