The wife of presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Thursday that his rise in the polls is due to God working in mysterious ways.

“I personally think this is God’s will. I think He has us on a path, and I do think there’s a lot more happening than what we’re seeing,” Karen Santorum told Glenn Beck as she and her husband sat for an interview on his Web-based show, GBTV. “Personally I mean I think Rick’s a great guy, and he’s really smart and everything. But I think a lot more is happening than what we can actually see.”

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Mrs. Santorum said she initially was reluctant to have him run for the White House — so much so that when Mr. Santorum approached her and asked her to pray about it, he said her initial reaction was that she wouldn’t even pray because “God couldn’t possible want you to do this.”

But she finally gave the go-ahead to her husband to run for the White House once she saw President Obama win passage of his health-care law, which she said “put the fire in my belly.”

She said the campaign has been challenging, and said some would “have to be crazy to want” to be president. But she said she and her husband escape that because for them “it’s completely a spiritual thing. This is God’s will.”

“The ‘want’ is a mission to make the culture a better culture, more pleasing to God,” Mrs. Santorum said. “For us it’s all about making the world a better place.”

Sitting with three of their children, the Santorums said the campaign has been educational for the children, and said they’ve thrived on the encouragement of the voters they’ve met along the way.