Not only that, this book only applies to a very narrow sector of married women in the world. It may be applicable if you are young, healthy and not disabled, and affluent. Trust in God; Trust in Jesus, both through prayer and the Word. That's the moral, and once you do everything falls into place including and especially marriage. Praying Wife" was different to what I was expecting and at first I found it hard to relate to the topics as they didn't seem relevant to where my husband is in his journey with Christ. However, I realised that I could just use the topics as a starting point for my prayers for my husband. The prayers were quite specific, so it was hard to find them personal for our situations/circumstances, but I would like to go through the headings again and write up my own prayers for my husband, based on those. The author got me thinking about things to pray about for my husband, that I had never thought of before in regard to topics, not substance.

If she said that prayer was “cheaper than a divorce” one more time, I was gonna throw my book at the wall!!!! Chapter 1: "I don't care how liberated you are, when you are married there will always be two areas that will ultimately be your responsibility: home and children. Even if you are the only one working and your husband stays home to keep the house and tend the kids, you will still be expected to see that the heart of your home is a peaceful sanctuary- a source of contentment, acceptance, rejuvenation, nurturing, rest, and love for your family. On top of this, you will also be expected to be sexually appealing, a good cook, a great mother, and physically, emotionally, and spiritually fit." Even if you're the breadwinner these are the expectations that she's placing on you. She's saying EVEN IF YOU HAVE A STAY AT HOME HUSBAND, you're supposed to do all this. And I can't for the life of me find the quote in her book about how husbands just aren't as good as cleaning, but I could have sworn I read something about that in there. And also, men can be in charge of the cooking, it's not a gender based thing. Chapter 10: "If your husband is not a full-time fool, so to speak but he does occasionally engage in foolish behavior, don't try to fix him. God is the only one who can do that." And maybe lovingly correct him and try to point out the error of his ways? What about the middle aged and elderly couples who no longer desire or are able to be at the ready for sex on demand at all times? What about marriages where one person is disabled? I am disabled and so could not be the perfect wife (shame on me!). However, God has used this challenge to make my husband into a more gentle, patient, and less selfish person. And his patience with me has helped me to be grateful to him, and makes me love him more.Without wanting to be too critic of Omartian, I also found she was a little "look what my prayers did for this person". She would use an example of someone (usually her husband, of course!) who she prayed for regarding the particular topic and explain how her prayer was answered in the future. Of course that's possible, but I felt she was saying it was her prayer, not God's power, that made the difference. It's hard to explain what I meant without sounding like I think prayer is redundant, because I absolutely don't believe that! I just mean that the way the author wrote, made it sound like it was all about her. Of course you can't force him to do something he doesn't' want to do, but you can access God's power through praying for His Voice to penetrate your husband's soul. The above quote is in the context of a problem that's been worked through and changed, which is great, but then the below comment comes which is written in present tense, and you wonder if maybe her husband is still verbally abusive? Shallow. This could’ve been a great, deep book on prayer, but it was so shallow and poorly executed. Chapter 1: "My husband will not do something he doesn't want to do. And if he ends up doing something he doesn't want to do, his immediate family members will pay for it. I've learned to pray about it until I have God's peace in my heart before I ask."

Chapter 25: "Suzanne was a praying wife who never stopped believing that God would bring her husband to repentance." I use this last one because there is a constant use of "will" "Would" verbiage that implies prayer always equals results. Sometimes, God might have a reason for not answering your prayer, no matter how fervent and well intentioned you are. There is no guarantee that if we just follow the magic formula of a praying wife we'll get good results. Can it happen? Yes. Should we pray? Yes. But don't make it out as a problem solved sort of situation. In the opening introduction she says "You can ask him [to pray for you], and you can pray for him to pray for you, but you can't demand it of him. Regardless whether he does or doesn't is not your concern, it's God's. So release him from that obligation." You should expect your Christian husband to be trying to build you up spiritually. I feel like that's not an obligation you place on him, but one that God does. Which means you have no right to release him from it. Chapter 4: "For a wife, sex comes out of affection... But for a husband, sex is pure need... He has trouble hearing anything his wife says or seeing what she needs when that area of his life is being neglected." Guess what, a husband can have sex for affection. And a wife can have sex out of need. This is a very generalized statement that tries to boil down the individual sex lives of couples into outdated tropes.After taking excerpts from the books, I want to now look at the book as a whole in context. This book does not apply to you if you are not a White, middle/upper class cishet able-bodied woman. If you are disabled, POC, queer, poor, or anything else, this does not apply to you. (I don't exactly hit all those marks either, but as I mentioned, I am doing research on religion, after growing up in a large Christian/Catholic community). Jennifer's review from October 17th 2014 is a spectacular review that covers these issues. This book has a lot of internal misogyny. This book is classist, it is ableist, it is many things. It ENCOURAGES women to remain in ABUSIVE relationships with their husband, despite everything. I really want to highlight that. Stormie Omartian ENCOURAGES you to stay in an abusive relationship. Omartian has, within this book, openly admitted many times that her husband, Michael, is abusive to her and their kids. But it is ok because it is under the guise of a good ole Christian marriage. To divorce grieves God. I find this book to be quite sexist, and feel that it tries to resurrect some old and trite stereotypes about men and women. It is also very hard on women. There seems to be an unhealthy tradition to place the blame on the woman and the entire burden and responsibility upon her for the success of her marriage. Chapter 6: "God wants us to get through temptation because He wants to bless us. But He needs to see if we can be trusted to choose His ways over our fleshly desires." Let me state this clearly. God is infinite, perfect, all knowing, and all powerful. He doesn't need to see anything about us, he already knows. He does not need anything from us. Begins with a challenge to seek God’s change in your own life before you start wanting Him to change your husband.

I want to end off with saying that Stormie Omartian speaks of women like we are mere slaves to our man. That we are accessories. That God made it that way. I want to say that this mindset is toxic and silly. This book actively encourages old, ridiculous rules and standards of women. This book actively encourages you to be an emotional sponge for your man. For a man that you pray for, but doesn't need to pray for you. You are not just a slave for your husband. You are your own autonomous person with your own free will. If your husband is abusive to you, then you need to leave, regardless if God grieves or not. Introduction: "The biggest problem I faced in our marriage was my husband's temper. The only ones who were ever the object of his anger were me and the children. He used words like weapons that left me crippled or paralyzed." Great concept! Wives need to pray for their husbands, and can be their husbands best prayer warrior. There are many aspects of your husband’s life to cover in prayer, and I think this book points out some great ones! It definitely motivated me to start actively praying more deeply for my husband every day. Stormie Omartian is an award-winning bestselling author and speaker who personally connects with readers and listeners by sharing her experiences and illustrating how God transforms lives when we learn to trust in Him.Chapter 13 "If your husband is going through a difficult time, carry it in prayer, but don't carry the burden. Even though you may want to, don't try to take away his load and make it yours. That will ultimately leave him feeling weak or like a failure." Galations 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. That's it. That's the Bible. Marriage is a partnership, and you help each other through it. To her credit there is a final chapter in the book which has been added in later additions about how a wife needs communication, but it feels too little too late. Negatives: Oh boy. Where to start... •Omartian puts too much of an emphasis on WHO is praying and not enough on who you pray TO. The power of prayer isn’t in prayer itself, but in the God who hears and answers. In Chapter 17 she says "Every married couple should have at least two strong believing couples with whom they can share encouragement, strength, and the richness of their lives." The Bible does teach that iron sharpens iron and Christian fellowship is important, but 2 couples is such an arbitrary (and unexplained) measurement of that. Maybe they don't need to be other couples, and you can get the same richness from single friends. Maybe one couple will be all you need. Who knows what wonderful and beautiful relationship dynamics you can build around you. Seems to be for women who think their husband is desperately immature spiritually; at least, that’s the picture she paints of her own husband. She seems to think his unique struggles are universal.

Lets just say that I found some red flags in the authors marriage that make me thankfully mine is nothing like hers. My husband would think I was slandering him if I tried to publish similar stories, and it's kinda hard to take her advice when I don't want to be in her shoes. Examples are: Let me put a huge disclaimer on this and say, if any of the lovely women who did this with me for a prayer group see this, I was so encouraged and uplifted by our discussions and prayers, and I believe we got some good things out of this book. My critique of this book is in no way a critique of our group or the talks we had, and I was so happy to do it with you all. There is some good stuff in this book, and I've rethought how I pray for my husband through it. But enough of the content worries me that I'd hesitate to recommend it to anyone. What about the majority of women in poor countries, who don’t have the money or even the access to stores to buy sexy lingerie, or a special perfume to be worn for him alone, or skin care products that make my skin look dewy and fresh?New from bestselling author Stormie Omartian is a book close to her own heart—The Power of a Praying® Wife Devotional. Following up on the insights and prayers of The Power of a Praying® Wife (more than 3.5 million books sold) 100 brand-new devotions, prayers, and supporting Scriptures offer a praying wife fresh ways to pray for her husband, herself, and her marriage. NOOOOOO!!!! This book only capture some of Stormie's memories and they just happen to be when God answered her prayers. She is showing us how she prayed to bring about change in her marriage. She tells us several times, that she had to ask more than once and so things took months and even years before she received her answer from God. I'm going to try and summarize my issues in a few different categories here. The examples are not comprehensive but hopefully show where I'm getting my opinions from. Look to God as the source of all you want to see happen in your marriage, and don't worry about how it will happen." How is sometimes a good question to ask. Is counselling a helpful answer to you? God might be leading you to that. Is better communication what you need? How do you work toward that? Relationships take work and prayer. In the foreword, by Omartian's husband, Michael mentions this, claiming it as a "joke in the household"- "It's been twenty-five wonderful years of marriage for me and twenty-five miserable years for you." Wow, what a real knee-slapper. Twenty-five miserable years of an abusive relationship for Stormie Omartian (and their children). What a reliable narrative to advise for my marriage.