The romance between Christian musician Leanna Crawford and her basketball star husband is certainly distinctive, mixing the worlds of two careers that make their mark within the highlight. Crawford, set to launch her debut album on July 19, has had a number of songs enter the Billboard Scorching Christian Songs chart, together with Imply Women and Reality I’m Standing On. Her husband, NBA middle Cody Zeller of the Atlanta Hawks, is a 6-foot-11, 11-year veteran who was a first-round choose in 2013.
Their 2023 marriage ceremony was featured in Folks Journal. She even wrote a music for him, Vow to Be Yours, that she sang for him that day.
“It has been a lot enjoyable. I really feel prefer it’s been very candy,” Crawford advised Crosswalk Headlines about their marriage. “We have been long-distance up till we acquired married. After which we acquired married. And we have been nonetheless form of lengthy distance as a result of we each journey loads. However it’s been candy. He’s my finest good friend.”
Zeller, she mentioned, is “very aggressive” and enjoys making up video games out of on a regular basis occasions. That always places the 5-foot-4 Crawford at an obstacle.
“He’s a whole lot of enjoyable,” she added, laughing.
Crawford’s debut album, Still Waters, contains 14 songs, together with the title observe—Nonetheless Waters (Psalm 23)—that she penned about her nice aunt, a faithful lady of God who died on the age of 105. Crawford’s mom was led to Jesus, partly, due to the aunt’s testimony and religion.
Crawford’s nice aunt’s religion had a significant influence on her life.
“She actually was simply an unbelievable lady who cherished Jesus, cherished folks, and came upon she was going blind in her 40s,” she mentioned. “And with that prognosis, she determined to memorize the Bible.”
Crawford desires her music to offer folks a “sense of hope,” reminding them “they’re cherished by simply an unbelievable, extremely loving father.” The title observe is predicated on the comforting message of Psalm 23, she mentioned.
“After I hear these phrases,” she mentioned of the well-known passage, “I’ve a way of peace as a result of I am like, okay, God’s acquired it. The Lord is my shepherd — He is acquired it. He is in management. I do not should be careworn.”
Crawford started sensing God’s name on her life on the age of 16.
“I went on a mission journey to Haiti with my church,” she mentioned. “… That was like one of many first occasions that I actually spent alone time with Jesus — I’d rise up actually early earlier than anyone else on the journey.
“So, on that journey, I felt Him calling me to do music,” she mentioned. “I had no thought what that meant. I had no thought how to try this. Nobody did music in our small city. I had been main worship at church and writing songs. And that was about it.”
In 2016, she met a Christian artist who invited her to Nashville to jot down songs. In 2019, she signed along with her label, Provident.
“God simply continued to open doorways, and I simply stored strolling by way of them,” she mentioned.
She added, “If one individual’s impacted by my music, I am so grateful.”
“I write a whole lot of my very own story; I write a whole lot of my very own expertise. And my prayer is at all times that somebody can really feel seen within the music and the lyrics,” she mentioned. “… Perhaps when folks hear that, they really feel a way of belonging; they do not really feel so alone in no matter they’re strolling by way of.”
WATCH: Leanna Crawford Opens Up about Music and Marriage to NBA Star
Picture Credit score: ©Provident
Michael Foust has lined the intersection of religion and information for 20 years. His tales have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Right now, The Christian Put up, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville Information-Sentinel.
