Bestselling author Stormie Omartian (The Power of a Praying Wife) met the young woman her son was dating in 2009. They all went to a Japanese restaurant, where the two women hit it off so well they could hardly chew their food because they were talking so much.
“We haven’t stopped talking since,” Stormie Omartian says. Now, she and her daughter-in-law, Paige--who married Omartian’s son, Chris, a little more than a year ago--have co-authored A Book of Prayers for Young Women (Harvest House, April).
Stormie Omartian, 70, has written more than 50 books on prayer, including The Power of a Praying… series, and reports 26 million books sold. “I’ve always wanted to write one for young women because I have such a heart for what they struggle with at this age,” she says. Raised by a mentally ill mother, Omartian turned to drugs, alcohol, the occult, and unhealthy relationships before becoming a Christian at age 28. “When I was Paige’s age, I was lost,” she says.“I see the need of women of my generation,” agrees Paige Omartian, 22. “I know what I go through, and I know what my friends go through.”
Paige is a Christian recording artist and speaker, and the author of Wake Up, Generation: You Have a Life...How Will You Use It? (Harvest House, 2012). A Christian since she was 8, just before her 11th birthday Paige received the shocking diagnosis of bone cancer. She underwent chemotherapy, radiation treatment, and surgery to replace 5 inches of bone, and spent most of a year hospitalized. In 2002, doctors declared her cancer free; a decade later she is going strong. “I almost died when I was 11, which showed me I am not invincible,” Paige says. She describes her passion as showing her generation the value of their lives and urging them not to waste a moment.
In a joint phone interview from Nashville, Tenn., where both live, the Omartians tell PW they wrote A Book of Prayers for Young Women with ages 18 to 32 in mind, but feel it also could benefit women younger and older. Working from a master list of topics, they wrote 154 prayers. The odd-numbered ones are by Stormie, writing to readers as a mentor, and the even-numbered ones are by Paige, writing as a peer.
Stormie says they think alike, look so much alike that people think Paige is her daughter, and have similar writing voices. “Sometimes when I’m reading one of her prayers I’m not sure if she wrote it or I wrote it,” she says. Paige wants other young women to know they can be real with God. “God wants a relationship with us,” she says. “He loves us and wants us to come to him with our problems.”
