My Prayer for Peaceful Parting

The night before my divorce was final, I wrote this prayer.

Divorce is one of life’s major stressors, and too often it devastates families, finances, and futures.

It has become my life’s work to help people avoid divorce if possible, and otherwise dissolve a union with respect and compassion.

I have always believed that families need not be broken, but can be peacefully and respectfully restructured.

As a therapist, mediator, attorney, and author of the book on Compassionate Mediation®, I have helped many people add passion to their marriage or compassion to their divorce.

However, I didn’t have anyone to help me when I went through my divorce many years ago.

Instead, I tried to make the painful process a spiritual growth opportunity.In the midst of the grief and trauma, I tried to help us heal.

The night before my divorce was final, I wrote this prayer.

I gave it to my husband and our attorneys at the courthouse, hoping to set the course for our future.

I offer it to you in the hope that you - or someone you know - can benefit from the intention.

My Settlement Prayer

I pray for a peaceful and respectful settlement meeting, in which all parties come together from their Highest Selves and their truest connection to Your guidance, wisdom, and love.

I pray that the parts of ourselves that are angry, fearful, defensive, revengeful, retributive, punitive, unloving, unforgiving, sad, young, abandoned, resentful, negative, hurting and hurtful – that all these parts be quelled with the leadership of the Self, coming from a place of trust in Your presence and light.

I pray for compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, and appreciation. Although our marriage has come down to a business closing of money and asset division,

I ask that we remember the love that brought us together, and the wonderful children who our union has borne.

For their sakes as well as our own, we wish to put an end to this process in as respectful and loving a way as possible.

Although we each carry our sadness and pain and mutual regrets, I pray that we can look beyond this difficult period to a time when we can be friends and coexist peacefully. I pray that our once-intact family can be rearranged to two intact and loving homes, where our children feel connected and comfortable.

I pray that we can hold in a different light the love that once joined us forever; that on the deepest level, we wish each other well as we let go and let God direct our lives.

For the sake of all we once had, and for all we had planned to share, let us now finalize the terms of our marital dissolution so that we are both free to get on with our lives.

Let us complete this last painful task with a sense of trust in the love we once shared, and hopefully can remember after this part is over.

Let us not work from purely simple and self-serving motives, but keep in mind the general welfare of each of us and our children.

Let us request our attorneys to contribute what is needed for the mutual benefit of all concerned.

In the end, let us know that we behaved civilly, that we can look back with a clear conscience, and that as much as we could, we came from our hearts.

God bless us and direct us all. Amen.

This Prayer is in my Book, and you can get a free chapter of the book below.

Does this post resonate with you? I hope it inspires you to
be compassionate with yourself and with everyone else.

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