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In 1974, Laurie Klein was a 24-year-old wife and mother struggling to keep her family afloat. Her husband, Bill, was a full-time student at Central Oregon Community College, and Laurie often felt isolated socially. "It was a dark time in my life. We had no extra money, no friends nearby, no church home, and my husband was busy all of the time with his studies. We lived on a highway in a mobile home, so I couldn't even put the baby in a stroller and go for a walk. I was lonely."

During early mornings, Laurie would pull out her Bible and guitar and begin praying and singing songs.

One morning, she started strumming on the guitar and the first two lines of "I Love You, Lord" came out of her mouth with virtually no effort. "I had just been studying about the need to praise God in all things, so those words meant a lot to me," she says. The last two lines of the song followed just as effortlessly.

Weeks later, a friend of the Klein's-a pastor and musician-visited Laurie and Bill to encourage them. Bill insisted that Laurie sing her new song for him. Their friend liked "I Love You, Lord" so much that he took it to a national church convention in California and sang it for the thousands of church leaders gathered there. It became the theme song for the convention. As a result, it went home with pastors from all over the world, and within a year Laurie was getting phone calls from people who wanted more information about the song.

Today, Laurie's simple prayer has become one of the most popular praise songs of all time. "It changed everything for me," she says. And 30 years later, it's still touching lives.

Laurie remembers one such moment: "In the fall of 2000, while my husband and I were in Discipleship Training School at Youth With a Mission in Lakeside, Montana, late one night in the dormitory I heard a baby crying. It was the baby of one of the young families attending the school. I slipped down the hall to pray for the baby, that it would be able to sleep. As I was praying outside the door, I heard the mother start singing 'I Love You, Lord,' and the baby fell asleep. The mother had no idea that I was outside the door or that I was the one who wrote the song."

Lyrics ©1978, 1980 House of Mercy Music/ASCAP. All rights reserved. Lindsay Terry is the author of The Sacrifice of Praise: Stories Behind the Greatest Praise and Worship Songs of All Time (Integrity).

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

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