If you grew up in the Bible Belt, Amy Grant’s music was probably a staple in your cassette tape collection. Dubbed the “Queen of Christian Pop,” Grant was one of the first contemporary Christian musicians who successfully crossed over to the pop music world. In fact, if you were one of the lucky ones, her music probably filled your home in the ’80s and ’90s.
Now that the award-winning musician is 62 and recently became a Kennedy Center honoree, she’s opening up about her life, challenges, vulnerabilities, and relationships, including how she has managed to have a 22-year marriage with country musician Vince Gill. Fortunately for us, she shared five surprisingly easy tips that will help us all have better relationships this year.
In an interview on the film-series podcast Dinner Conversations, Grant chatted with Andrew Greer about her family and life lessons she’s learned along the way. Turns out, five tiny lessons she learned were from her friend and author of An American Life, Jimmy Gentry.
Recalling the late ’90s when she was going through a divorce and had a child in high school, Grant was at her wits end. The musician decided to visit Gentry because she knew he would provide her with the wisdom she needed to hear.
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After Grant asked Gentry for help, the author told her, “I’m going to give you five phrases that are easy to remember. And I want you to say these phrases as often as possible…to yourself and to everyone.”
Five Tiny Lessons For The New Year
As an easy way to remember these phrases, Gentry then said, “We’re going to remember it by how many fingers I’m holding up.” First, Gentry pointed to each finger on his hand and told the musician to ask, “How can I help you?”
Gentry then put down his thumb and shared this four word phrase, “I’m proud of you.” He continued with the phrases “I love you” and “thank you.”
As the author let down all but one finger, he asked Grant what she thought the final tiny lesson would be. Knowing that it was a one word response, the musician had many guesses. Grant suspected the answer was Jesus, love, or forgiveness. However, none of these were the phrase Gentry was looking for.
Instead, the author revealed that the final phrase to live by was simply, “We.” As Grant said, this is the most important one of all because “when we look at it that way…when we are seemingly on opposite sides…we need to learn reconciliation.” What a great reminder for the new year!
