The title of this review used to say “fatherhood.” That was wrong, and it is worth correcting up front. The Power of a Praying Husband is not a parenting book. It is a book about praying for your wife, one area of her life at a time.
Stormie Omartian wrote it as the companion to her much larger seller, The Power of a Praying Wife. Harvest House, 272 pages, ISBN 0736957588. Her husband, the record producer Michael Omartian, writes the foreword and is credited on the cover alongside her.
How it works
The structure is simple and it is the whole point of the book. Each chapter takes one part of a wife’s life and gives you something to pray about it. “Her Husband.” “Her Spirit.” Her emotions, her work, her role as a mother, and so on down the list.
Every chapter closes with an actual written prayer. Not a prompt, not a discussion question, an actual prayer you can pray as written until you have your own words. For a man who has never prayed out loud for his wife and does not know how to start, that is the most useful thing in the book.
Each chapter also carries short comments from Christian men about their own marriages. Those are real and they are part of the design, not filler.
Honest notes
Stormie Omartian writes warmly and personally, and she draws heavily on her own marriage, which had genuinely hard seasons. If you want theological argument, this is not it. It is devotional writing aimed at getting you to actually pray.
The tone will not suit every man. It is gentle and emotionally direct in a way that some readers find sincere and others find soft. Read a sample before you commit.
One more thing worth saying plainly. A book like this can quietly turn into a project, where prayer becomes a tool for changing your wife into someone easier to live with. Omartian is aware of that risk and says so, but the format makes it easy to slip into anyway. The point of praying for your wife is your own heart as much as hers.
Where CalledToBetter stands
Men and women are equal in worth and dignity before God, and Scripture describes distinct roles for them. We do not go past what the Bible says plainly about what those roles contain. This book assumes a fairly defined picture of a husband’s spiritual leadership. Take the practice, which is praying specifically for your wife, and leave the framework where you find it unconvincing. The practice stands on its own.
Who should read it
A husband who wants to pray for his wife and does not know where to begin. A man who does better with a structure than with an open-ended intention. Good for a season rather than a permanent shelf item: work through it once, and keep what sticks.
Skip it if you are looking for a parenting book, or if you want a study with questions and homework.
The Power of a Praying Husband on Amazon