"Why did Bob Carlisle have to win Inspirational Song of the Year?" I thought as one hour later I thought, "Why did Bob Carlisle have to win GMA's Song of the Year?!"

I heard the story of a missionary that went to Russia for one year. He came back and heard that Bob Carlisle's music was hot - his was the #1 album across the country, and record companies and booking agencies were fighting all over him. His reply to this was, "This could have only been setup by God."

Bob Carlisle was the lead vocalist for a group called The Allies. He decided to go solo and put out his debut on Sparrow Records. He made another recording which included songs like "Getting Stronger" and "One Step Closer." Sparrow let him go. I mean, didn't you always mean to buy a Bob Carlisle album, but never did? So Sparrow let him go, and believe me, they are regretting it.

In case you haven't heard the song that drives teenagers crazy and makes mothers cry when someone even mentions the song, "Butterfly Kisses" is not brilliant. Bob almost didn't put it on his record. He wrote this simple song for his daughter, Brooke, and meant it to be a private and personal song. The song had been out for a while, before it won the awards and landed in secular DJ's offices for national radio airplay.

So you tell me you don't like "Butterfly Kisses." I don't either, yet I chose to write specifically on Bob Carlisle for this reason: his music is astounding; it is fantastic. Take "On My Knees" or "I'm Gonna Be Ready" for example. They are pop songs with inspiring messages. Too many of "CCM's" pop singles drift from any Biblical theme at all. But Bob knows how to put the music and the message together.

Wishful thinking will not get you anywhere. Go and buy Shades of Grace at your local Christian bookstore or the album entitled Butterfly Kisses at a secular or mainstream outlet. I knew that once I got my long-awaited Bob Carlisle CD that it would not stray from my CD player for quite some time.