The Power of Praying for Your Adult Children by Stormie O'Martian (review)

The Power of Praying for Your Adult Children
by Stormie O'Martian
Copyright 2009
Harvest House Publishers
233 pages
Author's website

We have all seen disastrous results when a young adult refused to receive correction from a parent or person in authority and rebelliously went on doing what they wanted to do. How many times have we observed young people reported on television as doing some horrendous thing, and we wonder, How could they be so stupid? Don't they know they're throwing their lives away? Why did they think they could get away with it? What made them so arrogant as to believe there would be no consequences?

This particular passage from The Power of Praying for Your Adult Children jumped out at me, not because my own children have done anything awful but because the small town I live in has had a rash of assaults, in recent months, and several teenagers were arrested. One of them had been offered a sports scholarship to a university in Florida, which the university retracted after her arrest. I did wonder what on earth was going through that teen's mind. Imagine what her parents must be feeling, right now. What a crushing blow to have a child appear to be on the brink of something wonderful, only to have it taken away because that child did something very wrong.

In The Power of Praying for Your Adult Children, Stormie O'Martian takes special care to remind parents that we all do or say things that are wrong, at some point; we're not perfect and our children will make mistakes. Soaking yourself in guilt is not productive. The most powerful thing we can do for our children, not just through childhood but into adulthood, is to pray for them. She reminds you that with adult children, first clear the slate by asking your child for forgiveness for anything that may have hurt them -- without couching such apologies in accusation -- and then to keep on praying. When things go so utterly wrong as they did for that young lady's parents, she would advise them to pray that the teenager learned from her mistakes and used her experience for God's purpose in some way.

I'm not quite sure what I expected out of this book, but I think it's better than what I'd anticipated. O'Martian describes specific things to pray about -- for example, praying that your child will have a heart for God, understand God's purpose for his life, work hard and with integrity. These are all things a lot of us probably pray about for our children anyway, but I love the way she backed each of the chapters up with scriptures that illuminate exactly what it is that the Bible says God will do for those who obey him and desire to fulfill whatever purpose God has destined for them. At the end of each chapter, there's a prayer that you can use if you're not sure what to say.

3.75/5 - Very good, especially for those who feel they need guidance concerning what specifically a parent should pray for and a bit of advice about being the parents of adults -- whether they're still hanging around at home or out in the world on their own.

Next up: A review of The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand.