Heavenly Father,
I pray for our church community and the health and safety of our families in our church and across the globe. I am a victim of intimate partner violence. I was made aware of my husband having an affair, with unprotected sex for over 1.5 years, during the time I primarily breastfed our daughter. I went to the church when I was made aware of the affair and was told, by the priest, to go home and work this out. After, I encountered sexual violence and psychological violence, it impacted my health and my parenting. Once, I gained enough energy to enter the legal system, the court system did not provide protection or relief. A year later my son was victimized by physical violence by dad and again I entered the legal system to ask for help, and I was told if there are no bruises on the child there is nothing they can do. I continue suffer from PTSD and triggers continue to be present. Now looking back, God has offered positive people and education to help me stabilize from the trauma. I pray our Church identifies health as a priority and initiates healthy avenues for families to detect Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and help individuals get medical help first, while supporting the family as a unit but identifying the need to create a healthy place for the victims of abuse. An affair is a form of sexual and psychological violences. Stabilizing the victims needs to be the primary concern of the church and our belief of human dignity and honoring life from conception to natural death. I pray each man and woman suffering from violence is able to be empowered by the truth, and stabilized by medical personnel, so education and healthy coping mechanisms are in place. For me going back into a violent home created more trauma than necessary. I pray no one enters this path of catastrophe and our church be a healthy foundation for unhealthy marriages.
I ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen