When she returns home from recording songs in L.A. or from a trip with Gospel for Asia in India, she’s welcomed by her “busy and crazy but sweet” parents and two younger brothers whom her family adopted.

On a day off, she sometimes helps with her mom’s cleaning service. (Except for cleaning toilets—she hates that job!)

Her ideal morning is waking up around 7:30 or 8, drinking a lot of coffee, watching the news, reading and journaling in her room, then going for a run.

She puts gas in her car. She’s handy at installing car air fresheners, and, unfortunately, she’s really good at making her car battery die.

When she was younger, she made money through baby-sitting. And her pet peeve is a hair or piece of lint stuck on someone’s shirt.

There’s a lot about Bethany that’s normal. Her 2007 release, Waking Up, carries themes of suffering, vulnerability, faithfulness and romance—many things that other young women can relate to.

“This record feels like a dear friend to me. A lot of the songs have been written out of sweet times and hard times,” she says.

Fighting Fear
One of the hard times Bethany is referring to is her struggle with fear, something she says she’ll fight until she’s 85 and wrinkly.

After her first record released and Bethany began touring a lot, for many weeks she didn’t get much rest. She had anxiety attacks in airports between concerts and felt paralyzed from taking the next step.

“I’ve had a lot of anxiety over being a disappointment to the Lord, the people I work with or work for, my family or dear friends of mine. A lot of humans are afraid of someone really knowing them, because they think, I’ll be boring or disappointing. It’s radical to be loved and really known at the same time. I’m being delivered out of fearing that, too.”

As Bethany wrote much of the music and lyrics for Waking Up, she says she had to learn the boundaries of caring too much about what people think and wanting to please them. The first line of “Change” talks about fear being a thief, but Bethany knows God defends and protects her from that.

“My anxiety attacks are gone. When fear enters my heart, I remember the moments when I would have had anxiety, and He was a hiding place for me. He’s made a more courageous person out of a huge coward. It’s amazing how He does glorify himself in weakness.”

Loving Others
Bethany wrote the song “Are You Sure?” from doubting her friends’ and God’s love for her.

“I don’t think about that too much with my family because they’re my family,” she says. “But being really cared for by somebody who knows you, you think, Seriously? I don’t really match my socks. There are days I forget to shave my legs. Are you sure about this? ” Last fall Bethany entered her first dating relationship, and she’s grateful for what her parents taught her about the subject.

“[My parents] encourage getting through high school without being in a relationship, for that season in our lives to be as light-hearted and carefree as possible—even for us to grow in the Lord in that time,” she says.

In Bethany’s family, when or whom to date depends on the person. She describes her parents as discerning people, so if they have a peace about it and she’s in a good place—hearing from the Lord and having conversations about it—then entering a relationship is OK.

“They’re all about letting time pass and not being rushed about anything. It’s given all of us kids a healthy mindset about [dating],” she says.

Bethany doesn’t feel seasoned enough to give advice about relationships, but she has learned something from her experience. When it’s pure and good, she says, dating and eventually being married is a reflection of Christ with the church. It’s something she’s seen in her parents’ marriage and her older sister’s. But she also encourages single girls to enjoy the source of that good thing more than the reflection of it.

“For a girl, whether you’re in a relationship or not, it’s easy to be intensely focused on the opposite sex and being attractive and interesting,” she says. “We’re constantly thinking about it. Train your mind and heart that Jesus is the only thing that’s going to last. I’m going to make sure I’m fed and hear Him clearly. Then I’ll recognize when that reflection of Him comes along, because I’ve been around the real thing enough to know.”

Culture Collision
Bethany has considered moving from her home in Ohio to Nashville to be closer to the music scene, but she’s not stressed about when or if it’ll happen. “Starting out the year traveling a lot, it didn’t make sense to make the big move in the middle of 50 things going on. I love Nashville, for sure. I have a lot of sweet friends there. But I’m not in a rush.”

One reason Bethany is taking her time may be because she’s having too much fun with the way things are now. Last summer she visited India with her older brother and dad to learn more about Gospel for Asia (gfa.org) and how she can sponsor their ministry as a touring musician.

“They’ve never had an artist spotlight them, so they offered to let us go over and see with our own eyes the churches they’ve planted and the Bible colleges they’re running. It was unbelievable to get the chance to go to India; to sit in a room with men and women who are choosing to risk their lives for Jesus was such a huge honor.”

While the trip was inspiring and included trying new things such as lots of meals with curry, Bethany says it wasn’t an easy trip. “Pretty much every morning I wanted to go home and have a big ol’ Starbucks and not feel like a spiritual ant anymore, but it was so sweet to go, too.”

The first day in the country, the trio took a three-hour train ride to visit a church in a village called Ambala.

“We sat in this stuffy, fly-infested, uncomfortable room for four hours and sang and prayed,” she says. “After a while I went upstairs with a bunch of girls from the Bible college. They speak absolutely no English, and I can’t speak Hindi at all. But it didn’t matter. They’re about holding hands, putting their arms around you. Their culture is very much like that. I sat in a circle with a bunch of those girls, we played with each other’s hair and giggled for two hours. It was a powerful thing for me.”

“Beggar’s Heart” is one song Bethany wrote from her experience in India. She started writing the lyrics before the trip, but being in a train station in India changed the song to its final version.

“It was so overwhelming to step over beggars lying on the sidewalks—you’re not sure if they’re alive or dead. It didn’t feel real to me at all,” she says. “I started to journal and scribbled out the words I had before and rewrote the song. I finished it while I was in India on different train rides and car rides down a dusty road to some random village. It was the cry coming out of my heart while I was there.”

Finding Courage
The last track, “You Are on Our Side,” gives examples of God’s grace reaching the outcasts, such as the Dalit people in India, often called “untouchables.” The orphan is found. A widow’s oppressors are silenced. Runaways find God.

A line in this final song says, When You could just be silent and leave us here to die/ Still, You sent Your Son for us. Upon reflection, Bethany says, “We need Him to come and save us from being a coward or getting caught up in having things, being successful, having a great GPA or getting into the college everyone will be impressed with. There are so many things we get stuck in if it wasn’t for Jesus. He’s a good God.”

Because of His goodness, Bethany can be confident of this: “He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Bethany celebrates Independence Day
“We live five minutes out of Rushsylvania, Ohio. There isn’t a front yard or front porch without a refrigerator or a couch. It’s that kind of town. My dad grew up there, and they have a Fourth of July parade every year. Everybody in the county is on his tractor with an American flag hat on, throwing candy at little kids. We’ve gone every year since I was little. We stuff ourselves and see the fireworks, too. It’s a hysterical day, but we look forward to it probably more than any other holiday.”