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How long had you dated the guy?

Tricia Only about six months. But I'm not a casual dater, and for me this was one of those situations that felt like what I hoped it would be some day—like this could be the guy I've dreamed of, but that I didn't really think was out there. We clicked from the beginning, and God was in the middle of the whole relationship. Our conversations about what we were learning and reading, and it was amazing.

Was this your biggest true love?

Tricia Yeah. This was the first time I let all the walls down.

So why did you break up?

Tricia He has a great family, really close. But his parents had kind of made him too dependent on them at his age, for a 25-year-old man. It's almost like his parents were jealous. It was this very unhealthy dependence, and he was trying to get away from that, but they didn't want that. They kept telling him, "We don't have peace about this. We don't think the timing is right." That put a lot of strain on the relationship, and he finally just said, "I can't do this any more. I need to get away and pray." And that was pretty much it.

I'm sorry. Gosh, that sounds like a situation that never would have gone away. If you guys had gotten married, it could have been a problem all along.

Tricia Yeah. After a long time of praying, he never came back saying he had figured anything out or was ready. He wanted to do the friendship thing, and I said that really can't happen. So I just kind of ended it.

I think your pain comes through pretty clearly on the song.

Tricia I think so too, and I think that emotion is going to hit people in a way that it couldn't if it wasn't real for me. I also think the song could mean many things for different people—whether it's loss or pain or just life getting hard, I think the song is going to be comforting to a lot of people. And that makes it all kind of worth it for me.

Melissa, what are your thoughts on the meaning behind Beauty from Pain?

Melissa Brock I think we've all learned that pain isn't just something you go through for no reason. We now realize there are things to be learned through pain.

I went through a really hard break-up too. At first it seemed like the most horrible thing in the world, and I didn't understand why I had to go through it. It wasn't until later that I realized there were many things I could learn through it.

And what did you learn?

Melissa That I've always depended on relationships and guys to fulfill my life. I had never been to that place where I was all by myself, at the point where I had to depend on God to be everything that I needed—not any relationship or any guy to fill any of that. That's the beauty I've come to find through all of this. I've become stronger. I guess I really found myself more, after all of this, than I ever had before.

My biggest problem was that I'd never fully depended on God. I like to take care of things myself, not ask anyone for help—not even God. I would forget that he's the one that should be my strength—not my own strength. After my break-up, I was at a very broken place with nowhere else to go. It left me at God's doorstep and saying, "All right, if this is what you want, and you want all of me, and you want all of my attention, then it's yours completely."

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