Just Another Birthday by Casting Crowns

Album: Come to The Well (2011)

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Casting Crowns frontman Mark Hall has served as a youth pastor since the early 1990s. During this time, he has had to minister to numerous young girls without a father at home. He told New Release Tuesday: "More times than I can count, I have watched these girls grow up and look elsewhere, trying to find the love that's missing at home. It's a sad journey that often scars them."

Hall has tried to be a spiritual father to these teenagers, but he believes the absence of a dad, "seems to be the problem in most every situation." The chorus of this song came to him one night at a restaurant. He explained: "I had spent time with some of my students that day, and their familiar plight gripped me until these words came out. Throughout the song, the girl tells her story as she's growing up and trying to reassure herself: 'It's OK, it's just another birthday. He's not here but he will be next time.'"
Hall explained that the song has two purposes. "Hopefully, it'll shake up some fathers and remind them of their true priorities. But it's also meant but to encourage kids out there who don't have an involved dad here on Earth. I wanted to remind them that God is the Father to the fatherless."
Hall penned this with country songwriter Tom Douglas whose other credits include Lady Antebellum's "I Run To You" and Miranda Lambert's "The House That Built Me."

Comments: 1

Deborah Morris from MariettaThis song made me cry. My father left when I was 4. My mother remarried when I was almost 7. The man adopted me. He may be my "father" but he was abusive. He's still a part of my life but I don't see him often now that my mother is gone. I've forgiven him amd my mother for the pain they caused. I learned to depend on myself at a young age. I accepted Jesus when I was 12 but now with blocked memories returning from 48 years ago, my faith and heart are shattered. I don't know who I am anymore.

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