Point of Grace: Getting the 'Point' Across
Lisa Ryan got a chance to hear the heartbeat of this incredible band in Nashville a few months back, when three of these four encouraging artists were pregnant.
LISA RYAN (reporting): Every Christian girl knows who they are, and many women would like to be a little more like them. Theyre the Grammy-nominated, Dove Award- winning Point of Grace. Would you like to know whats behind these four beautiful faces?
SHELLEY BREEN: Right now, a lot of the girls may go, 'Oh, they look like theyve got it all together. They have their perfect little picture on the front of the album.' But thats not really us.
HEATHER PAYNE: I truly wanted to be married. I wanted to have a baby. I wanted to be a mom. I wanted to be a wife. For some reason it wasnt happening. I wasnt meeting anybody.
DENISE JONES: I still struggle with comparing. I can sit and I can watch my friends and go, 'Gosh, they do that so much better than I do.'
TERRY JONES: Its kind of a female tendency to be insecure about yourself and to need that affirming, whether its from your husband or your friends or whatever.
LISA RYAN (reporting): Despite their fame, Point of Grace struggles with the same issues that women everywhere face. How do they overcome their problems and insecurities? They know who they are in Christ. They actually learned this lesson way back when the group first got together.
SHELLEY: My favorite story was when we were out singing at a summer camp a long, long time ago. This one little country bumpkin, this little boy wrote us this little letter, and it said, 'Dear Point of Grace, I love your music. Thank you for coming to our camp. Denise, youre the first prettiest. Heather, youre the second most pretty. Terry, youre the third prettiest. Shelly, youre the fourth prettiest. I was like, 'That would make me the least pretty, little boy.'
LISA RYAN: Does that ever make you compare yourself with each other or bring up those female jealousy things that are kind of natural and normal for women?
DENISE: I still struggle with comparison. Terrys a much better teacher than I as far as her children are concerned. Shelly is so much more organized than I. Heather is so laid back. I feel like there are two major sins in life: pride and unbelief. I think mine is unbelief. Thats my unbelief; I dont believe God can make me the mom I need to be. Those are issues that I struggle with every day. Its a constant thing that I have to go to the Lord and remind myself, I am not an orphan. I am His daughter and I inherit everything He gives me. So thats where I am.
LISA RYAN (reporting): Denise knows that believing Gods promises is the secret to surviving in a world thats focused on success. Point of Grace has set-out to share this secret with todays young women through a conference tour called Girls of Grace.
LISA RYAN: Whats the message you want to get across to young women through these conferences?
HEATHER: Well, I think that the Scripture that we have that weve kind of set as the theme of Girls of Grace is in 1st Timothy 4:7 or 4:12. It says, 'Dont let anyone look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.'
SHELLEY: If we can cause these girls to contemplate their friendships and contemplate their sexuality and what being a pure girl really is and really looks like, and if we can have them contemplate their relationship with God and how they treat their parents and maybe make them think about some things that maybe theyre doing flippantly and havent really thought about and think about their decisions and how theyre going to effect them later, thats really what we want to do. We just want to be real with them.
LISA RYAN: What age group are you targeting?
TERRY: Its ages 12-18, seventh- to twelfth-graders.
LISA RYAN: Do you feel thats a critical time for young girls?
TERRY: Absolutely, I mean I know for me, those were my foundational years of the person that I am today. I know that 8th grade is where I really found out that you know you could have a daily relationship with God, that you could have daily quiet times. Those are foundational things to the way that I am today, memorizing Scriptures and knowing things in you head so that when a crisis comes up, God can give it to you and give you peace about things. We really want to come alongside what the parents are trying to teach the kids at home. Weve had so many moms come up to us desperate, saying, 'Help me with my teenager. I dont know what to do. Theyre not listening to me. They listen to y'all.'
LISA RYAN: As Point of Grace, what would you say to the young woman who feels like shes ugly, no one likes her, shes not pretty, nobody loves her. How would you encourage a young woman like that?
SHELLEY: I think that on different levels, all four of us have felt that, and everybody has. I didnt get to go to the prom because I just didnt get asked when I was a senior in high school. I mean, I didnt really go on dates and stuff.
TERRY: We are really trying to encourage girls to look on the inside, to look on the matters of the heart. Honestly, when God looks at you, He does not see your outward appearance. He sees your heart.
LISA RYAN: What about the single woman who is watching all of her friends getting married and feeling, 'Is there anyone for me, God? Whats wrong with me?'
HEATHER: I have totally been there. I totally have. I was 29 when I got married, and Im sure there are people that are older than that even right now that are still single. It was always a struggle for me. It came to the point in my life that I just said, 'OK, Lord, Im going to be honest. I dont trust You. I just dont trust you, and I confess that. That was a turning point in my life. It was truly a turning point in my life. I was just honest with Him and just said, 'Im giving this over to You because I cant deal with the fact that I dont trust you anymore because I know that You are worthy of my trust. I finally did, and I cannot tell you, the Lord gave me the desires of my heart in such an amazing way in the man that I married. He is everything that I needed, more than I even knew that I needed.
LISA RYAN: How do you balance it all? I struggle with how to balance the ministry Gods called me into, being a wife, and being a mother. How do you balance everything?
TERRY: Its just a daily thing. I really try to prioritize my life and put it into perspective. If God is going to be first in my life, how much time am I going to spend with Him today? Then if my husband is second in my life, what am I doing to make Him second in my life, to make him the priority He needs to be? Then my children are my next thing. Then after that comes my job. Once those things are in line and we have our time slotted out correctly with each of them, then it kind of falls into place.
SHELLEY: So we are fourth.
TERRY: You all are fourth.
SHELLEY: I didnt know that.
TERRY: No, maybe you all are the friends after my job.
LISA RYAN: Do you think women need to learn to say no?
DENISE: Im telling you, Christians have it hard. I mean we have a lot of extra pulls. Then theres that whole guilt thing of Im not doing enough. The thing is we cant do enough to please God. He loves us where we are.
