hen writing an article for a Christian relationship insights magazine, it’s only natural to choose Sara Groves as a subject. A thoughtful watcher-of-people full of social compassion, as well as a wife and mother, Sara knows all about relationships and love.

Sara Groves is a former high school teacher from Minnesota. After teaching English for a few years, she felt led to begin a career as a Christian artist. In 1998, she released her first album. She grew up in a musical family and began writing songs at age four. Now, seven albums later, her latest project, “Tell Me What You Know,” (INO Records) was released November 6, 2007. Sara’s music is in the pop, singer/songwriter genre.

Crafting thought-provoking, insightful songs is a form of teaching for Sara. “I live for conversations,” she shares. “I want every single song to be a conversation starter. A good teacher doesn’t just tell you, ‘This is what you should believe, or this is what you need to know.’ I would hope that, like teaching, it would be more like posing a question so that you are thinking about stuff that you maybe wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.”

Sara Groves

Sara’s latest realm of thought provocation centers on the ministry of the International Justice Mission (IJM). IJM protects people from violent forms of injustice by securing rescue and restoration for victims and accountability for perpetrators and also ensures that public justice systems work for the poor.

Over the past few years, Sara was incredibly influenced by the work of IJM. “If I were to sum it up, I would say the last three years have been all epiphany.”

After reading the book “Terrify No More,” by Gary A. Haugen, IJM president, with Gregg Hunter, Sara’s life perception changed. The theme of “where are God’s people” resonates throughout the book. “That just changed me,” says Sara. “It shook me out of that people-watching place. I always kind of felt like my job was to write music about people doing stuff.”

Sara Groves

Sara also gave the book to her husband to read and told him that she wanted to be a first responder. She wanted to be the Good Samaritan, who helps people rather than walking to the other side of the road to avoid someone who is in trouble.

“God has really great things for us to do,” she says, with compassion in her voice. “I’ve been more of a commentator. It’s easier to grasp the law. It’s always easier for people to take home the law than it is the love of Christ … the grace end of things.”

The day after Sara’s Good Samaritan conversation, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Sara and her husband collected donations and supplies from people in the area, turned her tour bus into hurricane relief on wheels and then headed for the Gulf.

Beyond traveling and serving as a Good Samaritan, Sara is a mother of three children — Toby, Kirby and Ruby — as well as a wife to Troy Groves, who is also her manager and plays percussion in her band.

With the roles of wife, mother, singer, teacher and servant, Sara has a lot of relationship experience. The best relationship advice she received came from her mother when Sara was a newlywed. She recalls her mother called and said, “I will not take a phone call next week with you crying and saying, ‘I expected these things to happen and none of them happened.’ You need to set Troy up for success. He cannot read your mind. Set him up for success.”

Setting others up for success rather than failure is something that translates to all relationships, Sara says. “I think a lot of people, in order to prove love, set little traps for each other. I don’t think we do it on purpose, I think it’s sometimes the way we’re motivated.”

Sara Groves

She continues, “We sort of lay these traps saying, ‘If you do these things, I’ll know that you love me or you care about me.’”

Admitting that she set traps for people before, Sara explains, “I think a lot of people, especially women, sort of have that in the back of their minds. They think: if he really loves me, he would anticipate what I need.” She adds, “I think that that’s a lie. I don’t think that’s true.” For Sara, the truth is communicating what she needs to the people around her.

With two boys, a brand new baby girl, and a devoted husband, it is clear Sara set her marriage up for success, rather than failure. “Song For My Sons,” the leading track on her new album, is a lyrical prayer dedicated to her sons.

Sara Groves

The last three years have been pivotal to Sara in more than the area of social justice. Her dreams for her sons have also changed.

“My dreams for my kids can be that they have a good life, go to school, get a good education, marry a nice person, live in a nice home. Or my dream and my prayer for my kids can be that they have a radical encounter with the living God, regardless of what that looks like.”

Sara readily admits that God’s plans for her children may not be her plan for them at all. “Not knowing as a mom what God would like for them has definitely been a part of letting go for me. I want to impart to them the importance of pouring themselves out and entering in to the suffering of others. That’s different than the direction that maybe I was headed at first when I first had my babies — when I wanted to move to a remote island and protect them from the whole world.”

Whisking her children away to a safe island is contrary to what God desires for her life and the life of her children. “That applies to all relationships too,” Sara adds. “With the increase of evil, you could be talking about any number of things. You could be talking about pornography, all of it, the breakdown of family … These things happen.”

Sara says, “It’s going to get darker, before it gets light and you’ve got keep your heart open. You’ve got to love people. Even though it’s going to assail your heart, you have to keep it open.”

Keeping her heart open to love is exactly what Sara is doing. Her latest CD has inspiring songs that spur the listener on toward proactive love.

For more information on Sara or to purchase her latest album, visit http://www.saragroves.com. Clips of her Gulf Coast and Rwanda trips can be found on the Nømad Reality Film Series ( http://saragroves.com/music/order2.cfm ).