At just 23 years old, Jamie Grace is a Grammy nominated singer/songwriter, author, speaker and role-model for young women around the world. Jamie has taken her musical platform and extended it to a personal community for young women to discuss the challenges they are facing as teens. Armed with a fierce love for Jesus,
Jamie tours the country performing her music, leading the “GraceTalk” event for girls ages 10 & up, and also being a spokesperson for what it’s like living with Tourettes syndrome. Join us as we hear from Jamie about how God has used her music for His glory; what’s next in her career and ministry; and how we can impact the lives of the young women in our lives.
hey there welcome welcome I’m so glad
that you’re here
delighted to share this time with you
because we’re going to be having a
conversation that I hope you’ll enjoy
I am Priscilla and this is the chat I’m
so glad you’re joining me pull up a
chair
enjoy we’re going to be talking to a
personality whose ministry whose
songwriting whose music has gone
literally around the world she is a
delight to know I cannot wait to sit
down and chat for her and with you stay
tuned
I am so glad that you were joining me
because we’re getting to have an
opportunity to sit down with a young
lady that I just think is fantastic at
23 years old she is already a
grammy-nominated singer songwriter she
is an author she has a ministry to young
women in particular all over who she is
mobilizing and helping to helping to
remind about their value and their
significance and so I’m so excited to
sit down with her and just kind of pick
her brain a little bit just kind of get
into what makes her Jamie Grace will you
please welcome her to the program today
I’m so glad this is Jamie grace hi so
glad some of you know I want to make
sure you see my highlight
yeah little blue oh my goodness that you
and Priscilla inspired my hair that’s
why I have color in my own oh that is
not the way it went
that’s not the way when you happen to
just walk with clip-ins Mikey extra
clip-ins
extra tutus extra feather earrings extra
everything yeah I sent up her in the
back I said I want to wear a tutu and
she said I have a pink one and a white
one which color do you want
I keep like walks around with tutu and
clip-ins
just you never know why I have extra
cowboy boots anything you need that is
colorful and fancy I got it so well you
do have a very unique style that you’re
kind of known more and there and you
know what really it’s a good thing
because you really catch the eye of a
lot of young women who are kind of
watching you and seeing you and they’re
excited by what they see and you kind of
draw them into your experience and then
you point them to purity to holiness
what is your message what is it that you
hope to do and to bring to particularly
young women but yeah of all ages well
we’re the host style thing came from I
have to make sure that I credit that all
to my mother you know my dad’s a pastor
my mom was a stay-at-home homeschool mom
and our family lived off of 350 dollars
a month for my entire childhood my mom
shopped at the goodwill and got us
cowboy boots and cowboy hats and
volatize before they were in style so
that’s where this whole style thing came
from my mother
but you’ll wear a cowboy boot with
anything oh my sweatpants dresses
anything there’s probably one day a week
that I don’t wear boots like I have to
have my boots my bolas but my sister
always has a hat yeah all the time but
as far as my message you know I remember
when I was a kid I was going through a
lot of stuff and I just had a lot of
people that poured into my heart and
reminded me of my value in Christ and
that it wasn’t in what I looked like or
what my health was like or what my body
was like but it was how I really
understood that I was a child of the
King and so for me I realized that not a
lot of girls know that not every girl
knows that she’s a daughter of the king
some grown women weren’t told that by
their fathers and so I just really want
to continue to put that message out
there like you’re a child of the king
your father is a king so your prince
your father’s a king so your princess um
and just encourage people to walk that
out and live in that freedom that we are
I mean we’re not a big deal but our dad
is so yeah pretty cool right okay tell
us we want to know about your childhood
a little bit about you because we you
know we know your music we hear you on
the radio we kind of see you from afar
and see all these fantastic things that
have been happening you and your
headlights and your booty we want to
know where you came from where are you
can tell us about your growing up tell
us about your mom and your day I’m from
Stone Mountain Georgia just east of
Atlanta we moved there when I was 10 and
a half months old so I like to say I’m
from LA but I’m from Atlanta so I’ve
lived in Georgia my whole life my parent
my daddy started our church when I was 1
or 2 years old is he still a strict yeah
he’s still pastoring I’m the young adult
leader I preached to the 18 and up
ministry my sister’s married and she and
her husband are both in ministry our
mom’s the co-pastor with my dad we just
love Jesus and we just love serving and
we didn’t grow up with a lot but we grew
up like knowing that whatever you have
you’re supposed to use that to give to
other people and to love with other
people because that’s what Jesus would
do and so we like there was a time where
we had two cars but we gave one away to
a family in our church because they
didn’t have one and for us that wasn’t
like a look at our parents and how great
they are it was just a you know this
family needed a car and so that’s just
kind of how we grew up and just kind of
how our mentality always was and then as
we got to like high school our
grandfather started to bless us with
instruments that was one really cool
thing like that the Lord’s always done
is that people have always just really
like just been really gracious to us and
I’m just blessing us our family like a
vacation or blessing our family with
groceries and we were younger and so
that was a huge blessing for us and when
we were in high school our grandfather
blessed us with a drum set and a guitar
and we were the loudest like children
that you can possibly imagine any
siblings oh just two okay so just the
two of ya I mean we’re a pastor we’re
pastor so you know always kids in and
out of the house you know but yeah when
do I mean you’ve got me it sounds like
30 children in the house yeah
I was just so loud I didn’t know how to
play the drums but I didn’t care there’s
something you get hit on and so um we’re
always just making music and always
being loud and we were home schooled and
so just always just at home just yeah
together and what do you make though to
your eclectic style of music because the
reality is it’s not like you fit into
the gospel bubble you don’t necessarily
fit into the contemporary bubble you
have a mixture that kind of crosses all
these y’alls
and what do you attribute that to um our
mom did the very you know typical black
woman from Atlanta thing she sang
southern gospel that’s what all the
black ladies in Atlanta do oh yeah all
of them it’s so typical we listen to
Bill Gates and all the time we have the
secret Club about it um so our mom sings
southern gospel growing up and our dad
is all about t-bone like Christian
hip-hop and so like our yeah y’all I
don’t even know that is and so our dad
loves like Christian hip-hop and our mom
loves southern gospel and my very first
solo was Janet Pascal’s born again which
is a southern gospel song so we grew up
with a very eclectic like style of music
that we listen to and then Morgan my
sister now we’ve tried every style of
music you can imagine I mean we start it
with like like have like the playing
skillet type music and then it’s a super
chick and then Barlow girl then Kurt
Franklin and then all that kind of stuff
and it’s funny because every time Morgan
and I would show up to a church event to
sing people would always look at us and
they’d say Oh y’all gonna be the next
Mary Mary for got obvious reasons and so
and then I don’t know what why it’s
because um cuz they’re sisters and so
and so I’m in then I like pulling my
drumsticks out of my back pocket and be
like psych we’re gonna be skillet in
South that’s great so we just we just
listen to a whole lot of music I mean
from from Zoe girl to to showbread to
like every – out of Eden to Kirk
Franklin to Fred Hammond like we just
love we just loved all kinds of music
about Jesus and I think it just
somewhere along the way it just kind of
you do other music other than Christian
music though yeah Morgan my sister now
we have a country duo called Harper
still um I usually pull out the banjo
and she’s got our mandolin and we just
we love making it’s normal it’s donal
I’ve seen a black woman with a banjo you
know what I don’t know if I have you the
girl I don’t know if I have either I
just do love I love the way the banjo
sounds I love Needtobreathe
like my sister and I will love new
trickery yes what I’ll need to bring
Carol I gotta get you started you’re
gonna love it
they’re so good it’s a group yes and
these two brothers kind in some other
guys in the band but they’re not
important I’m just kidding they’re all
important they’re all great man and they
like that was my first band just a
little bit I learned and then I learned
some like a little big town stuff but I
just love playing the bass so all kinds
of music yeah I just let all of that
informs the sound that you have now as
Jamie grace I just I just yeah I just we
grew our churches also you know very
diverse and you know a lot of people
from Jamaica and Guyana and you know
Mexico and say my mom Diana yes I think
that’s the coolest thing ever
like I just I think cultures so
fantastic when I was in college I told
my professor I was half Filipino but I
just like love your lives your professor
a lot I just was appreciating other
cultures
in my conversation and then he asked me
yes it was a cultural class and so he
was like Jimmy case could you speak to
the class on what it’s like to be an
asian-american you do it I was on black
site I don’t know nothing um but yeah I
just love culture so much so we grew up
around and I think that’s so important
for parents to raise their children
around families that don’t speak the
same languages and don’t eat the same
food I mean because when we get to
heaven everybody’s not gonna look like
us and so I think it’s important to be
around different cultures and food and
people and languages and music and
honestly I think that’s my parents
intentionally making sure that my doctor
was from Norway that my dentist was from
Africa that our church family was
diverse I think that’s what made me into
this because you know it is true that
it’s it’s very you have to be
intentional about doing that yeah cuz
you kind of live around a pocket of
people that probably look like you ever
you know all the kids of your kids
school yeah look like the kids you know
your kid so we kind of do that
unintentionally the church we go to you
don’t going to be a church that kind of
looks like you yeah and so if we’re not
intentional about making sure our
children and us that we’re around other
types of people sensitive to their needs
and their preferences then you’re right
it’ll kind of get lost in the shuffle of
things
Wow the list yeah pretty sure and like
you’re saying a lot of times it’s not
even intentional you just you know you
just don’t really really realize it and
so I know for me when I got to college
and I kind of spent time around like
even even more people from different
cultures and backgrounds it was really
awesome so I’m really glad that I grew
up that way and glad that now that it
flows into my music and in my ministry
as well so well you know one thing that
I appreciate you and we’ll talk about
this more after the break if we you know
if we make it back around to there’s so
many things to talk about one of the
things I appreciate about you Jamie
grace she came to visit my church she
was not singing or anything she was just
coming her and Morgan were coming to
Turkey it’s fantastic yes so we all sat
together in church and and that was our
second time meeting each other we don’t
we met one time before very briefly at
an event but then we came had church and
then afterwards we wanted to go eat and
you know dislike you know she’s Jamie
Grace she’s got a Grammy nomination I’m
thinking where do I took her to eat and
she said well we really would like you
know we love Mexican food and we’d love
to get some Mexican food the best
Mexican food
I know of in my neck of the woods is
this little hole
all place that’s attached to a gas
station so I was thinking to myself do I
brave taking Jamie grace to the gas
station for Mexican food and I knew once
I got you in there you would be so glad
he went to the gas station for Mexican
food but I was a little hesitant about
it at first but Jamie grace the Grammy
nominated Jamie Grace and her beautiful
beautiful sister Morgan and her husband
came with us to the gas station they are
so down-home and so regular that we sat
there in the gas station in Satan
guacamole and salsa Mon and that is when
I knew you were my people that is when I
dream of you I love it so we’re gonna
take a break we’ll be right back
hi I’m Priscilla and I wanted to take an
opportunity to invite you personally to
join me for a seventh session Bible
study on the armor of God will dive
deeply into what it means to be equipped
to stand firm against the schemes of the
enemy he is very real and he has been so
strategic and targeted in his attacks
against us why shouldn’t we be equally
strategic and targeted in standing firm
against him and you and I have an
opportunity to suit up to put on some
armor that works and to go to battle and
to see victory declared in our lives in
the lives of those people that we learn
this Bible study will be one that will
change our lives forever and will help
us to walk in victory so plan to join me
won’t you the armor of God
I am having so much fun we are having so
much fun because the very bubbly
gregarious outgoing to to wearing Jamie
Grace is at the house of us today we’re
so glad you’re here Jamie
okay so what keeps you grounded because
you are down to earth you did eat
Mexican food with me in a gas yes yes
and yet you are grammy-nominated your
songs are heard over the radio you know
you’re cutting in high demand and yet
you are so regular how do you keep
yourself granted uh well I do want to
make sure that everybody knows that you
were associated about the Mexican
restaurant thing myself and my sister
and her husband we were the ones going
we’re going to church with Brazil like
we were stressing out cuz my dad’s a
pastor and thinks your dad is just such
a great great pastor as well so I just
want to point out that it was definitely
mutual if not even more on our and we
were so nervous to go to church with you
to the point where when you when he sat
down and he said do I want to sit next
to my sister and she she looks at me she
doesn’t know I’m sitting next to
Priscilla
except for Silla sat in the middle of us
at church cuz we couldn’t decide you got
to sit with you um just want to make
sure you know that’s why you’re in the
middle but now I mean I feel so blessed
to have the family that I have honestly
um when I was when I when I graduated
from university I moved out just total
independence I bought the house next
door to my mom and dad and I just I just
wanted to do my own thing I would young
were you in the music thing started long
terms of you doing it for a like like
yeah I was 19 when this started as a
living and then 20 when I graduated him
and moved out okay which 20 was I mean I
mean I get that like living next door to
my parents doesn’t seem like a huge deal
but it was kind of my way of I trying to
gain a little bit of independence but
the last couple of years if I’m just
being totally honest I started to just
see things in my character that I wasn’t
all about like I wasn’t like becoming
like some cruel human or anything but I
noticed that I was like becoming like
way bratty er I was becoming way too
excited about the fact that people get
excited about Jamie Grace and so I just
kind of went to my parents and it was
like can I move back in for a year and
just be under your covering again
because I just I want it to see what it
felt like again for my parents to walk
by my room and say you need to clean
that up and I just I feel like I needed
this outlet yeah I’m 23
so you’re 23 years old and this is the
wisdom that bubbles up in your life you
would be humbled and you want to move
back home with your parent all you’re a
23 year old single woman yes what does
dating what does all that look like for
you how do you handle that area of your
life let’s go there it is this struggle
I’m on that struggle bus no I’m just
kidding um I think a lot of times cuz I
talk about being single a lot and I sing
about it and probably 90% of my songs
and I think I think people the one in
people hear me talk about being single
it a lot of times comes across as I’m
single because I have to be like I’m
single because I’m just so sad and alone
but honestly it’s just a choice because
I realize that God’s plans are so much
greater and then my own are you saying
you don’t want to be married or no I
totally want to be married I just I feel
like I can’t I can’t rush it you know I
don’t I’m not a casual dater at all I’m
a very intentional person and so um I on
dating or courting am count
old-fashioned or courting with the with
the intention of marriage yeah so I’m I
my heart is just in this place of
waiting for whoever God has that’s going
to be intentional you know I don’t do
that hey girl you know let me text you
for a couple months and then we’ll go to
Starbucks now if you want to go out with
me you should just say I’m interested in
you you know let’s go out so I’m
honestly just waiting for whoever the
Lord has has sent that it’s going to be
like intentional and that knows what
what the plan is because I’m I’m not
planning on just kind of just dating
just to be dating I think our hearts are
too precious and too sacred to just
spend them just for no reason at all um
my parents have been there the opposite
of what you see happening in the culture
that oh my goodness here is it hard for
you to make that kind of a stand you
know for sure I mean even even in an
unromantic sense most of the guys that I
hang out with like my guy friends even
when I’m talking to them they’re like oh
why just I don’t know I’m not trying to
get married I’m just trying to you know
date for a while and so it’s a it’s very
odd I don’t
many people that are you know better my
age that that are that are like
marriage-minded I guess that’s the right
word so I’ve tried ChristianMingle much
I’m just kidding but now he’s getting em
so he’s pleased by my hair extensions on
my website so I can afford matcom that’d
be great but I just I I don’t meet many
young people that are that are marriage
minded and I think that that I just
think it’s I think it makes more sense
to go that route my parents have been
married for 28 years and my sister has
been married for five years yeah and I I
was not there when my parents met but I
was there obviously but I was I was in
college with my sister when she met her
husband who also went to college with us
Point University and so I I got to see
this beautiful like friendship happen
and then it turned into him being
intentional and it’s starting something
more and then him just really pursuing
her heart in a godly way how do you deal
with loneliness how do you deal with
that I hear a lot of and and so your
life is so full of people they’re all
around you whether you’re in a comment
or whether there’s a strong desire for
me to be married so exactly new to me so
how do you how do you deal with that
when you’re in those segments of time
we’re yeah well in the house hello yeah
ever how do you just get over the hurdle
honestly before I even get over the
hurdle like I’m not gonna lie there’s
lots of crying there’s lots of really
sappy songs that I probably shouldn’t
play because they make me even more sad
a lot of Nicholas Sparks movies um and a
whole lot of jets pizza I hope I get an
endorsement out of this um that’s just
that’s what happens like pre hurdle um
but like getting over that it’s it’s
truly just just just realizing that like
the Lord is the greatest thing that I
need I yeah I have a song on on my last
record called my first love and it was
actually written out of a night I
watched the notebook and I was eating an
entire buffalo chicken like eight square
pizza from jets pizza whoo glory that’s
so good
I just wanted claps aria but I had I was
eating that and I was just having one of
those sappy nights it was my parents
wedding anniversary and my sister and
her husband their wedding anniversaries
are five days apart so I was all by
myself and I was just feeling so alone
like like that no one was there for me
and it was almost as
like three times my life for the Lord
has spoken audibly to me like I know it
was his voice and it was if he spoke to
me and he said Jamie grace am I not
enough for you and it was just this
reality that even though like I would I
would planned on being married at 19 or
20 years old it was a plan that was
totally my plan like I’ve been praying
for my husband since I was 14 the
journal and everything like the peer do
you mean like that that’s me I’m that
typical preacher’s kid from south of the
mason-dixon that has been praying for
her husband or her whole life but the
Lord was like joke’s on you and so and
but that’s okay because I’m realizing
that through this I’m able to have these
experiences with the Lord that I might
not have if I were married or have these
experiences with the girls that I
mentored that I wouldn’t have if I were
marry and have these experiences with my
goddaughter that I might not have a
far-out married right now so I just
choose to just appreciate what poo the
Lord is to me and what he’s given me and
just just keep waiting and if you guys
have any sons between the ages of 22 and
31 needles give me a call 7 7 0 I’m just
kidding
so not above 31 that’s just too much you
know there comes a time where you can’t
be picking so we’ll see any any race you
know yeah any race you know any
ethnicity just basically by list for
like a husband is like breathing no that
is not your we are not gonna we are not
gonna let her get away with that lift
right there no that’s not gonna work for
me yeah I’m just I’m really picky when
it comes to other stuff I’m picky about
like door like opened the door to the
car and like pay for dinner I’m so
old-fashioned yeah so I think I think
that’s a yeah I think that’s why hard
for me cuz I’m I’m 90 years old when it
comes to my my standards I guess so good
for you
good for you you should be stay 90 thank
you but just keep wearing the extensions
in here okay girl I got you
yeah thank you thank you thank you – um
okay so I do want to ask you about this
because this is something I don’t think
a lot of people know about you you have
had a struggle is it your whole life
yeah since well since I was nine is when
it really started yeah okay
so just tell us what the struggle is cuz
I don’t think a lot of people know that
you deal with it how do you deal with it
yeah I was diagnosed with Tourette’s
syndrome when I was 11 years old and
also OCD ADHD and anxiety and Tourette’s
syndrome is a neurobiological meaning
brain condition that causes you to make
movements and sounds called tics that
you can’t control
so from ages 9 to 15 my Tourette was so
severe that literally from walking to
the end of that couch to the end of this
couch I would fall on the floor from
just twitching so much my limbs going
everywhere and I used to wear gloves on
my hands because I would accidentally
punch things and I would get my knuckles
bruised and my mom actually has scars on
her legs from when she would walk behind
me in the grocery store because my legs
would kick so that I wouldn’t hurt my
legs on a shelf she would walk behind me
and take the hit for me and I just I
went through a lot of that physically
and a lot of medication a lot of that
kind of thing when I was 16 I stopped
medication because I wanted to try
college without medicine and now I don’t
I don’t take medicine I have a
mouthpiece that actually helps with my
tics it’s a really crazy nerve kind of
thing that it does but um it was there
all the time I don’t I don’t have it in
now um I I don’t wear it at work so and
when I eat because that would be a
strike I ate too much to try to wear
mouth peas at the same time taco bell
chicken food guess girl you know you
know um so but it was really difficult
for me and I dealt with I mean being
sick and then also you know not having a
lot of friends I was called all
the time which I’m a huge person against
the word if you’re picking up
like that’s not okay um and I struggle
with my faith I didn’t understand how my
daddy was the preacher man like my daddy
was the one that prayed with people and
stuff happened you know my daddy was the
one that counseled couples and they
renewed their vows like like you know
what’s going on here God oh yeah like
why won’t you fix me and I went through
this entire period honestly from like
nine to 15 years old where I just really
lost trust in God and I just really lost
my hope in him um I didn’t lose faith in
God but I just lost the ability to
understand that he loved me and
somewhere in high school I really just
got reconnected with my favorite
scripture and it’s Psalms 30 verse 5 and
it says a weeping may endure for a night
but joy comes in the morning and it was
just this realization that even though
like I mean yeah like I’m twitching now
like because I don’t have a mouthpiece
but even though like I you know I face
things in my life that I can’t control
like I’m not the only person that faces
things that they can’t control we all
have things whether it’s with your your
health or your family or your children
or your school or
you know work whatever it is but the
beauty in it is that weeping may endure
for a night weeping may endure for
second-grade weeping may endure for
highschool weeping may endure for that
seventh year of your marriage weeping
may endure for a night but God’s joy it
ain’t never lasted ain’t about to start
like his joy will come in the morning
and I like to think of that as the mo
you are the mourning his joy will be
there in the morning and so and my life
is far from perfect you know my sister
and I were where our mom is really sick
and we’re battling through that as well
right now but we just understand that
God’s joy is still there his peace is
still there and you know I might not
know what happens tomorrow we might not
know what happens in the coming weeks
the coming years but we know what
happened 2,000 years ago and we know
that we were given a king that loves us
more than we can imagine so I say it and
sometimes is easier said then to believe
it and to walk it out but that’s where a
lot of my means it comes from and that’s
for a lot of my my messages come from
right you know speaking stuff is that
God’s joy has not left us and you have
to choose choose to walk in it like you
get used to be a brat about it which I
do along like I love to close myself in
my room and play sad music or I can
choose to go to my father choose to go
to the people that he’s put in my life
he’s gone and she used to walk in his
peace that’s good innit that’s good you
are a beautiful home delightful
fantastic young woman you need to know
we are for you we are for you we were
excited about everything that’s
happening in your life I’m so glad that
she has joined us today and she’s talked
a lot about the sister of hers name
Morgan and so listen you need to know
this is just part one of a conversation
we’re going to keep having we are going
to come back when we do come back it’ll
be a part two conversation you’re going
to want to make sure that you come back
and join us for that because we’re going
to join Morgan to this conversation talk
to her a little bit about what’s going
on her music and in her life and how the
two connect on a regular basis then
we’re going to have them sing for us as
well which I think
so thank you so much for joining us you
guys helped me to thank Jamie gray
you