Laura Story’s husband, Martin Elvington, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She prayed for his healing but her prayer wasn’t getting answered the way she wanted in the time she wanted. As she walked through this challenge in her journey, she had a paradigm shift and the word “blessing” started to get redefined in her mind. Laura says that we usually see blessing take the form of prosperity or good health. But when we are going through something difficult and painful, does that mean that God isn’t blessing us then?

She wrote the song, Blessings, that asks many what-if’s. Laura says, “Could God be possibly blessing us through not giving us the things we’re praying for…Even though we have more questions than answers… theres’a blessedness that comes through waiting on the Lord, an intimacy that comes through walking through that valley, a reliance on His Word that we only know when everything else in life fades away. In that sense, I truly feel that I am blessed.”

In June 2011, this song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Christian Songs chart, and eventually went on to win the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song.

The story behind the song, “Blessings”:

The Song:

LAURA STORY LYRICS
“Blessings”

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

‘Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not,
This is not our home
It’s not our home

‘Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise