Carrie Underwood might be one of the biggest country music artists of all time, but she doesn’t want to be known just for her music. The Oklahoma native hopes, more than anything, she can spread a message of love by sharing her faith, with her friends and fans, and especially with her sons, 5-year-old Isaiah and 1-year-old Jacob.
“I want our children, I think just above everything –– this goes for everybody, everywhere too –– [to know] you are loved, and you are wanted,” Carrie said in a recent episode of their I Am Second web series, God & Country. “There are some not too great things that happen in the world, and happen within families. We are all flawed, and our flaws I think ripple out onto everybody else. But through everything, I want the people in my life that I love to know that they are loved by God. They are wanted.
“God wouldn’t have made any of us if He didn’t want us,” she continued. “I feel like that’s part of my purpose in the world, no matter who you are or what you’ve done, or any of it. If I could just make everybody feel that they are loved. I feel like that’s my job. That’s my job as a parent too. Of course, I have a forever love, unconditional love for my children, but God has real unconditional love for His children.”
Carrie and her husband, Mike Fisher, make their Christian faith a priority in their home, hoping to instill in their sons a belief system that will carry them into adulthood.
“Someone asked me recently what my greatest fear was,” Mike said. “Right away I thought, ‘Well, it’s losing a child.’ And then, as I thought on it, I was like, ‘No, I think the greatest fear for me would be having a child that didn’t have a real relationship with Jesus. I want my sons to see me, and be like, ‘This is real. This isn’t just what he’s saying –– not an informed faith. This is a transformed faith. My dad is different.’
“I don’t know that I’m there,” he added. “But that’s the goal. It can’t be just about knowing about God, or about Jesus. It has to be really following.”
Carrie and Mike’s children might be young, but already they are seeing their hard work pay off, especially with Isaiah.
“We always pray before meals and stuff like that. Isaiah will remind us, even if one of us is in the other room, hasn’t made our breakfast yet, he’s like, ‘Where’s mom? Where’s mom? I gotta have mom!’ so we can all be there together to pray,” Carrie said. “A lot of times, I feel like because we have an open dialogue about God, he just says things. ‘Did you know? I have to love God, even more than you Mommy. I love God so much.’ I feel like he means it.
“I feel things are just rattling around in there, and you’re like, ‘What do you sit around thinking about all day?’ she noted. “I feel like it’s such a normal part of our life, and that’s what I love, that he can just blurt out whatever.”