God of Love, We’ve Heard the Teaching

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.