A Dad’s Prayers for His Daughter

So, I've got my first guest blogger today! I'd like to think that my blog is just so popular that I need to hire people to write posts for me. But in reality I got a book for 'Dads' and I thought I'd farm out a review to a dad who could more accurately review the book. My guest blogger is none other than my lovely husband (who was not paid anything for his time, ha!). Take it away, Hubby!

Hey readers! This is Lark’s husband, guest blogging about a great new book called A Dad’s Prayers for His Daughter by Rob & Joanna Teigen, the same husband and wife team that wrote 88 Great Daddy-Daughter Dates.

I’m glad Lark got a copy of A Dad’s Prayers for His Daughter for me because praying for my daughter has been a priority since she was born 9+ years ago. And because I tend to be rather rote with my prayers, this book was much appreciated. It’s a well-done prayer guide, especially for dads who need help keeping their prayers for their daughter fresh, relevant, and thorough. Each of the 88 prayers (I sense a pattern, and a shrewd marketing job here…more on that later) is between one and two pages, easy to read, and helpful to use in our ongoing prayers for our little—or grown up—girls.

Many evangelicals aren’t accustomed to using written prayers in their devotional life, and I’m no exception. Having grown up in a traditional, mainline denomination I’ve experienced the danger of pre-written prayers becoming dull, heartless, and detached in both personal and corporate worship. Since college I have almost exclusively prayed extemporaneous prayers. Thus, when I picked up this book to use in my prayer time for my daughter, I expected to struggle with the fact that, well, they were pre-written. I expected to be taken back to my traditional, mainline days and become bored and unengaged.

Thankfully, nothing could have been further from the truth. In reading and praying these prayers I found my heart deeply resonating with them and my soul agreeing with what was written. Rather than becoming dull they added life and color to my prayers for my daughter.

The prayers themselves definitely have the feel of informal, non-liturgical prayers, the style you would hear in an average evangelical church in Anytown, USA on a Sunday morning. They use non-technical and what I would call “typically evangelical” language. If you are a person more accustomed to the prayer language of a liturgical church (Anglican, Catholic, or Orthodox) or if you are a fan of the King James Version and can’t imagine prayers being spoken without “Thees, Thous and Thines” then this book may be a little too folksy for you. I found them warm, heartfelt, and personal.

If there is anything negative to note about the book it would be just one thing: the choice of 88 prayers. Were 88 prayers really necessary? I get that the first book contained 88 great daddy-daughter dates. Its cute. It rhymes. But 88 prayers felt a little forced. There was enough overlap of prayer topics that the book could have been shorter.

I’m probably making too big a deal out of this, and I’m probably being overly critical. I think the couple that authors this book is creative and I’d love to see them keep writing. But are they going to get stuck being branded into that-couple-whose-books-all-contain-88-things?

That minor point aside, I found this to be a really enjoyable read with a very practical and spiritually enriching result: praying for every aspect of your daughter’s life. I trust that the Lord will use this book in the lives of many fathers and daughters and I would recommend it to any friend I know who has the privilege of raising a little girl.

I received a copy of this book through the Revell Blogger Review Program, in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.