Some years back I wrote a song called “Because He Loves Me,” a single from the CD My Beloved Christ that I created with Randy Kartchner.

Of all the things I know or don’t know, think or have thought, there is this one clarion concept of knowing — the Lord loves me.

I came to this world with the understanding. The thought, and the desire to know more, drove me to ask preachers and pastors questions that they couldn’t answer. I was pushed — by wise parents — to ask over and over, to ask leaders of different churches and to ask in prayer.

Growing up in a loving household of faith, I was granted the option of query. Little did I know that my parents were leading out in a Godly way, allowing me freedom to choose as they allowed me agency to choose wisely. Always, I wanted to know about the Lord who loved me, knew me, cared about me.

When I was seven, there were a few months of time spent in a hospital, with every treatment under the sun (at the time) used. Regardless, my kidneys were failing from the same disease that took my grandfather at the age of 51. I was dying of Bright’s disease.

Although I remember vaguely (like looking through a faraway telescope in my mind) the story is clearly implanted in my heart because of the memories shared by family and friends through the years. A little girl knew there was a God. She knew she had a Savior. Despite the doctors telling her parents to take her home, for she had — perhaps — two days left to live, she turned to the Lord.

The hospital staff tearfully went about their work, as a little girl prayed for her life. The story goes that through the night, before leaving that hospital, this little girl pled aloud for the Lord to heal her.

I gripped my hands in balls, praying in my little girl voice, that the kidneys would be healed and I could live.

My parents took me home. Two days later I went to the doctor. After running through tests and then returning for report, he flipped through a thick chart — and pronounced me, with jaw dropped and at a loss for words — well. Two kidneys, working. No explanation. No scientific reason why.

But the little girl knew. That experience taught this little girl to focus on the Lord. All these many years later, after many physical distresses and heartbreaking times of learning, one thing has remained: The Lord loves me.

Because he loves me, I can do what is required of me. I can lean on Him and do my part. I can get past mistakes. I can do hard things.

I can cover my heart with the Psalm 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

This is a very personal column today. It is extremely Readers Digest. But there are worlds of feeling and meaning and testimony here that I am sharing. Sometimes, a person needs to share the tender underside of the heart and hope that the testimony rings true to someone else.

“Because He loves me” has become my quiet motto — my anthem. I hope that it is a means of heavenly assistance for you, as well — a pure way of acknowledging the direction of our Lord who loves us more than we love ourselves and tends us until we complete our mortal mission.  It is all so beautifully good. And loving.

Vickey is a wife, mom, grandmother, author, and songwriter.  Her undergraduate study was musical theater. She has a Masters degree in communications & has taught CES programs for more than 25 years.

A Billboard award winning songwriter, her favorite use of music is as a tool to teach.  In addition to three solo albums in the LDS market, she co-wrote Women at the Well with Kenneth Cope and My Beloved Christ with Randy Kartchner.  Her website www.goodnessmatters.com is her way of continuing to grow goodness in the world, & point people gently toward Christ.

She & her husband Dean have eight children & eight grandchildren. She serves as Gospel Doctrine teacher in her ward, and Dean serves in their ward bishopric. Vickey, from Virginia, believes the adage ‘You can take the girl out of the South, but not the South out of the girl.” She loves flowers, brownies, the ocean, and laughing every chance she gets. Oh…and the Hallmark Channel.