My desire to write from an early age developed my writer’s eye and ear. It also honed my writing abilities.
I grew up in a very small remote village with very little to do as a young teenager. One of my summer pastimes was to record songs from the radio and to transcribe the lyrics into scribblers. Since I didn’t sing, having scribblers full of song lyrics made very little sense, but I can now see God’s hand in it.
By doing this I was learning how songs were constructed, what made a good song, what made a bad one and so on.
For nearly a decade I wrote for a local monthly magazine in the town where I now live as adult. God used this experience to prepare me for gospel song writing as well. In that job, I had to be constantly watching and listening for ideas for articles. This was wonderful training for gathering ideas for gospel songs. At the moment, I have seven notebooks full of ideas for gospel songs and I’m adding to them every day. I will probably never live long enough to write all of the songs for which I have ideas!
Another very important way in which the Lord was preparing me to become a gospel song writer was by giving me a Godly husband with a wonderful singing voice and the ability to play the guitar.
Together we are able to work on the melodies to the lyrics the Lord inspires me to write. Most of the musical talent is my husband’s with me in the background saying things like, “This should be up-tempo,” “Trying going up at the end of this line,” “We need a minor note here,” and so on. Together we work it out, though sometimes my suggestions are more of a hindrance than a help. My husband also records the demos for the songs.
Since becoming obedient to the Lord’s call to be a gospel song writer in 2002, there have been hurdles and challenges but I have remained faithful to that call saying, “I’ll write gospel songs until the Lord calls me to something else or calls me home.” With my husband’s encouragement, I began singing also. We sing together as Through His Grace travelling regionally doing church concerts, helping small churches in need, singing at nursing homes--walking through any door the Lord opens. We have recorded six CDs of songs I have written and my song catalogue has grown—not quite as big as Rodney Griffins, but he’s been at it longer! I pitch songs to Southern Gospel groups and songs are being performed and scheduled for recording. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve Him in this way and give Him all the glory for making this ministry possible. |
