Hey guys,

Martin & I had an amazing experience in LA this weekend going to the Grammys. Here’s a fun pic of us on the red carpet — even though I am not that far along, it was still quite a task to find a tent like dress to cover my baby bump!

We are so thankful for this blessing as well as the surprise of winning a Grammy.   Here is our official press release with the news

ACCLAIMED ARTIST LAURA STORY CELEBRATES DOUBLE “BLESSINGS” WITH FIRST GRAMMY® WIN
AND FIRST CHILD DUE THIS FALL 

Celebrated Fair Trade Services recording artist Laura Story picked up her first GRAMMY® at yesterday’s awards ceremony, winning “Best Contemporary Christian Song” for her No. 1 hit “Blessings.”  This GRAMMY® win crowns an immensely successful period for the decorated worship leader after she garnered five Dove nominations, a No. 1 hit song and a best-selling sophomore album Blessings in less than a year’s time.

“Blessings,” which was released last year, was in rotation at over 100 Billboard Christian format reporting stations going No. 1 at Christian AC, Inspo and the National Audience charts for multiple weeks. Additionally, the song also held the No. 1 spot on the iTunes® Christian/Gospel Top Songs chart for 28 consecutive weeks. The critically acclaimed album, Blessings debuted at No. 4 on Soundscan’s Overall chart and has remained one of Christian music’s best sellers to date.

In addition, Story and her husband, Martin, recently learned they are expecting their first child, due later this year.

“What an amazing season this has been!” says Story. “Martin and I have been so thankful to find out that we are expecting, and then this GRAMMY surprise was the cherry on top! We are both humbled and so grateful to God for this and pray that any attention the song “Blessings” receives will be used by God to bring hope to others who are walking hard roads. May God’s faithfulness be seen in this above all things. Thanks to all who are celebrating with us.”

Story’s new single, “What A Savior,” is also experiencing success at Christian radio and is currently No. 17 on the Billboard Christian AC chart. Top stations and networks currently playing the song include K-LOVE, WAY-FM, KLTY/Dallas, KSBJ/Houston, Fish Atlanta/Nashville/Sacramento, KTIS/Minneapolis and JoyFM/St. Louis.

Story kicks off the “Girls Night Live Tour” with Mandisa next week in Omaha, Neb.The tour will visit over 30 cities within the next two months and will also feature special guests Anita Renfroe and Jamie Grace in select cities. For more information visit www.girlsnightlive.com

What If Your Blessings Come Through Raindrops?, the first book by Story, will release March 13 by Freeman-Smith, a division of Worthy Publishing.  The 30-day devotional is based on her song, “Blessings,” and contains Story’s personal reflections garnered from her own journey, along with prayers, quotes and a journaling page for readers to recount how blessings have impacted their own lives.

The song “What A Savior” probably is one my favorite songs on this new CD. Part of it is just my growing understanding of knowing what it means to need a savior. I became a Christian when I was about 10 years old, so that was quite a while back. And I remember hearing about needing Jesus to be my Lord and savior. But it was harder as an adult to understand “What does that mean on a daily basis?”

I think the more I’ve grown in my faith, the more I’ve understood the depths of my sin and realized that my need for a savior really is a daily thing. Every morning I wake up having to come to terms with the fact that I can’t please God on my own, and I need Jesus every day. In this song there is a line that says, “He stood in my place, taking my shame upon his shoulders.” And I love when I get to sing that because it’s a line that I get to glory in. Jesus is that perfect savior that I could never be, and it’s something that I never get tired of singing about.

Its been a whirlwind year since the release of my album “Blessing” last February and Martin and I have loved every minute of it! Thanks to so many of you that made up feel welcome at various homes away from home. We count it a privilege to get to do what we do!
As we were pondering what to do with our spring, we were graciously invited by Food for the Hungry to join two of my favorite artists, Mandisa and Britt Nicole, for a tour we are calling “Girl’s Night Live”! Now before you men immediately check out, this is NOT a women’s only event and I promised Martin that there would be some other fellows there. But it IS an opportunity for me to join up with these two powerhouse singers and let God use our songs and our stories combined to hopefully do something significant for His Kingdom. So I’m not sure what YOUR spring plans are but we’d love to meet up with you at one of these stops. Check out our girls night live website for dates or keep checking my site as we will post more information as it comes. Again, thanks for all the support and hope to see you soon!

“Friend of Sinners” was a really fun song to write. I wrote this song with my friend, Brenton Brown, who is a monster worship songwriter. We often see each other at worship conferences, and one night while at a conference we just sat down and talked about this idea—that the very crux of who Jesus is is that He is a friend of sinners. We both often play at large churches that are filled with extremely put together people, and it is sometimes easy to forget that He didn’t come for those who are put together. In the gospels He says, “I didn’t come for the healthy, I came to heal the sick.” This song is just a reminder that Jesus didn’t come to put our lives together, He came because we were dead in our sins. He is our friend, who reaches out His hand to us offering forgiveness and healing. That is the kind of Savior that we have, one who loves sinners.

“Remember” is a song that I wrote for a communion service that my church was having. People have so many different views of what the communion table really represents: Is it the actual body and blood of Christ? Is it just a memorial? Regardless of what you believe though, I think Scripture clearly teaches that something special happens in that moment. It is not something that we do just because it is on our church calendar or a part of the service—we do it because our soul needs it. This song is really meant to be a prayer for those special moments with God while you are taking communion. As you are holding that cup, as you are holding that piece of bread, the song asks the Trinity, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do your work in my life, cause me to remember what Jesus did for me, cause me in some small way to relive that anguish, not for the sake of feeling guilty in and of itself, but to understand the price that Christ paid on the cross for us.” I feel like the more we understand the price Christ paid for us the more we will walk out of that building and lives of gratitude for Him.

“One Life to Lose” is a song that I wrote one night when I was reflecting on a quote that I heard from Jim Elliott that said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” I remember as a child, hearing this story about him and Nate Saint, and all of the men who went overseas where the Gospel cost them their lives. I remember that this became my greatest fear as a child— that if I followed God then the Gospel would cost me my life. It’s funny how my fears have changed as I have gotten older, because as an adult my greatest fear would be that the Gospel won’t cost me my life. My fear is that I will just live as a comfortable, conservative Christian my whole life; because I think about how comfortable I am and how conservative I am, and it sometimes bothers me. At the end of the day, I want to have spent for the cause of Christ. Paul says it best when he says, “My life I’ve poured out as a drink offering.” He had used all of his resources, all of his time, and had exhausted himself for the sake of the advancement of the Gospel—and I want this to be said about me at the end of the day. Jesus is certainly clear when he teaches that we have one life, and those who lose their life for the sake of His will ultimately find it.

“Your Name Will Be Praised” is a song that I wrote with my friend Matt Powell; and it is about learning how to praise the name of Jesus even when times are hard. The Scripture speaks so much about this subject—from the trials of Job to Paul’s thorn in the flesh. It is important to note that even through their trials, they lifted up the name of God and praised his name. “Your Name Will Be Praised” is a fun, upbeat song that says “Glory to You Exalted One, who gave Your life away .You are the Risen King, and Your Name will be praised.”

The song “Faithful God” is definitely one of my favorite songs on the CD. It is the very last song which is so fitting because I feel like it’s the conclusion of everything that I’ve learned, everything that I’ve experienced just these past few years with Martin’s health and with so many things going on in our lives. A lot of people ask me, “What has God taught you in all of this? What have you gained spiritually from walking through all of this?” There have been highs and lows in our lives—mountains and valleys, but at the end of the day God has been faithful to us. Every promise he has made to us, he has kept. Every need that we have had in our lives, he has met. So I want that to be the pillar of our lives—that God is faithful.

Since there are so many songs in the history of all songs that talk about who God is, we really wanted to approach it from a new light. The line that kept on coming up in our minds while writing this song was “You are love.” It’s the most basic thing to say about God—that he is not only the author of love, but the sustainer of love, and that love manifests itself in things such as forgiveness, beauty, and reconciliation. And so we just sought to write a song that adores God, and just talks about the love that he has for his children.

The album that I did three to four years ago happened right after my husband went through surgery for a brain tumor. So a lot of the ideas that I was writing about then were just very fresh, about how do we worship in the midst of trials. So fast forwarding a few years later, a lot of things have changed. A lot of things have gotten better with his health, and a lot of things have not. We pray for God to bless us, but what does it look like when I spend four or so years praying for healing for my husband that never comes? I feel like we’ve kind of gotten to a place of having to make a choice. Are we going to judge God based on our circumstances that we don’t understand, or are we going to choose to judge our circumstances based on what we know to be true about God? Not that I choose the right thing every day, but I’m learning that every morning when I wake up to choose to trust God.

And that’s what “Blessings” is about. It’s just considering that maybe the blessing is actually found in the absence of the thing that I’m praying for. No one wants a brain tumor, and no one wants a severed marriage and these things that we pray that God will reconcile. But even though this situation is definitely nothing that we ever would have asked for or prayed for, there has been a depth of intimacy with the Lord that I’m not sure I would have known apart from such a hard road that we’ve walked. And in the end, if I’ve learned to cling to that old rugged cross all the more, I truly can say that I’m a blessed person.