Sonderbooks Book Review of

Your Father Knows Best

True Reports from Court of God Moving When People Are Praying

compiled by Bob and Charlyne Steinkamp

Rejoice Marriage Ministries was founded by Bob and Charlyne Steinkamp to minister to spread the word that God heals hurting marriages. Twenty years ago, Charlyne divorced Bob for adultery and abuse. But God spoke to her, asking her to pray for Bob and pray for their marriage to be restored. And God did that very thing, after two years divorced.

This summer, when I got to visit a meeting of Rejoice Ministries in Florida, I told Charlyne about my upcoming court case. It looked like I might get out of the November 5 trial if my husband and I reached an agreement about custody and visitation, but it was looking more and more likely that at the very least there would be a final divorce hearing on December 10.

Charlyne, who is compassionate and kind and a radiant believer in the power of God, reminded me about their book, Your Father Knows Best. I'd read the book before, but agreed that this was an opportune time to go over it again.

Your Father Knows Best is a compilation of true stories people have told to Bob and Charlyne about ways that God moved in surprising and miraculous ways in court cases. This book is an encouraging reminder that God can still work, even when divorce has gotten to the final stages.

I could add my own story to a later version of the book. A few days before our custody and visitation hearing, our lawyers came to an agreement that would settle matters between us. I went to my lawyer's office and signed my name or initials 300 times on 5 copies of two different versions of the agreement.

A couple days later, I learned that my husband did not like the agreement and had a dispute with his lawyer. It was too late to get another lawyer before the case came up in court, so he dropped it completely. I am still married.

Now, my husband still fully intends to divorce me. I was disappointed that this development meant no spousal support is forthcoming. I've wondered if maybe I shouldn't file for divorce myself to get things settled.

However, I prayed and asked God if I had really heard correctly and if He was still telling me to wait and pray for my marriage to be restored. He answered swiftly and surely, yet again through a sermon the very next Sunday, a Christmas sermon not quite like any other I'd ever heard.

And God already did an amazing, unexpected and impossible thing by putting a stop to the divorce case this first time. Who am I to say He cannot do this other thing of restoring and rebuilding our marriage?

Books like Your Father Knows Best remind me that mine would by no means be the first marriage God has miraculously restored.

A wonderfully encouraging book about God's power.