An Introduction to Courtney Smallbone
Who is Courtney Smallbone?
When you first meet Courtney Smallbone, you might notice her infectious energy before anything else. She’s the kind of person who throws disco parties just because life deserves celebrating. With her unique blend of retro sparkle and farm boots, she embodies a spirit that refuses to be boxed in.
Most people know her as the wife of Luke Smallbone, one half of the Grammy-winning duo For King & Country. But Courtney has carved out her own space in the world of faith and ministry. She’s an author, speaker, and storyteller whose life reads like a testament to resilience.
Together with Luke, she raises their four children on a sprawling farm in Columbia, Tennessee. It’s a life that balances the chaos of touring with a Christian music powerhouse and the simple rhythms of rural living.
A Life of Color and Purpose
Courtney calls her existence a “confetti life.” It’s messy, colorful, and full of unexpected moments. Her mission centers on helping women break free from monochrome living and step into what she calls a “technicolor” existence.
This isn’t just poetic language. For Courtney, living in full color means discovering who you really are beneath the layers of expectation and fear. It means trading hustle for peace, anxiety for confidence, and shame for grace.
A Foundation Shaken: Early Life and Near-Death Experience
The Battle with Lemierre’s Syndrome
At eighteen, Courtney faced something most people never encounter in a lifetime. She was diagnosed with Lemierre’s syndrome, a rare bacterial infection that occurs in roughly one in a million cases. The disease starts in the throat but quickly spreads through the bloodstream to vital organs.
What followed were surgeries, ICU stays, and the very real possibility that she might not survive. Doctors worked around the clock to save her life while her family held vigil.
A Faith Forged in Fire
It was during those dark hospital days that something shifted. Jesus, who had been a concept or tradition, became real to her. She encountered Him not in a church service or youth group meeting, but at her most vulnerable moment.
Surviving Lemierre’s syndrome gave Courtney what she now calls her “bonus life.” September 15 became her second birthday, a day she would celebrate for years to come. Little did she know that date would hold even greater significance a decade later.
Building a Life: Marriage and Motherhood
A Partnership in Faith and Music
Courtney married Luke Smallbone in 2010. Their relationship has weathered storms that would test any marriage. When Luke battled ulcerative colitis in 2013, his six-foot-four frame withered from 185 pounds to just 125 pounds. He looked, in his own words, like a concentration camp survivor.
Courtney became his caregiver, documenting every meal, supporting him through daily walks that consisted of nothing more than a single lap around their cul-de-sac. She held him up when he couldn’t hold their six-month-old son Jude.
This wasn’t the glamorous life of a music star’s wife. It was raw, difficult, and intimate in ways that only suffering can create.
Life on the Farm
The Smallbone farm in Tennessee serves as both sanctuary and workplace. Their children pull weeds and occasionally worms from the garden. Dogs run freely across open fields. Cattle graze in pastures that stretch toward the horizon.
It’s a deliberate choice, this rural life. Between tour dates and recording sessions, the farm grounds them. It reminds them that life happens in the small moments, not just the spotlights.
When Heaven Touched Earth: The Miracle of Leo
A Mother’s Worst Nightmare
September 15, 2017 started like any other day. Courtney had managed to get all three boys down for naps simultaneously, a small victory any mother would celebrate. She grabbed her coffee and a book, settling onto the porch swing.
Then something strange happened. Her vision blurred. She couldn’t focus on the words. And then she heard it, clear as anything: “Go check on Leo, and don’t believe what you’re about to see.”
She found her eight-week-old son face down in his crib. Gray. Cold. Blood on his face. Not breathing.
A Prayer that Brought Back Life
What happened next defies medical explanation. Courtney ran outside with Leo’s lifeless body. Luke jumped off the riding mower and called 911. She laid her baby on the gravel driveway and began CPR, her screams echoing across the farm.
With Leo’s blood smeared on her face from mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, she placed her hands on his sunken chest. “In the name of Jesus, bring back my baby,” she prayed. “By the blood of Jesus, raise him to life.”
Luke looked at his wife, then at their son, and shook his head. They both felt it, that moment of complete surrender. Courtney whispered, “Jesus, only you can do this.”
Then Leo’s chest expanded. His eyes, which had been foggy and empty, began to twinkle. He cried.
Luke shouted into the phone, “He’s alive!”
The Aftermath and a New Reality
At the hospital, doctors discovered Leo had craniosynostosis. His skull sutures had fused prematurely, creating a misshapen head that was particularly heavy in the back. The medical team believed he had rolled over, gotten stuck, and suffocated. They labeled it “near-SIDS.”
Leo would need skull reconstruction surgery. The Smallbones faced a long road of medical interventions ahead. But their son was alive, breathing, present. That’s what mattered.
The Hidden Struggle: Battling Addiction and Anxiety
The Grip of Prescription Medication
Years of trauma had left their mark on Courtney. The near-death experience at eighteen planted seeds of post-traumatic stress. Nightmares came. Panic attacks followed. She pushed it all down, not wanting to appear weak.
During her second pregnancy with Phoenix, severe morning sickness led to a prescription. The medication helped with nausea, but it also calmed her anxiety. So she kept taking it. Higher doses. More frequently than prescribed.
She hid it from everyone, even Luke. Coming from generations of pastors and married to a Christian music artist, she felt trapped. Where do you have that conversation about anxiety and addiction when everyone expects you to have it all together?
A Cry for Help and the Road to Recovery
The breaking point came when Luke was on tour in Texas. Courtney tried to quit the pills on her own. Within hours, she was shaking, shivering, experiencing suicidal thoughts. Her heart raced. She knew she couldn’t do it alone.
She called Luke. “You need to come home.”
He flew back immediately. That night, as her hands trembled, she asked for just one more pill to get through. That’s when Luke realized how serious things had become. The next day, they checked her into an outpatient mental health facility.
For weeks, seven months pregnant, Courtney detoxed. She felt overwhelming shame. How had she let it get this far? But in that place of vulnerability, something broke open. She prayed, “Lord, you have to use this. You have to show up, because I’m not okay.”
And He did. Grace flooded in. She began to understand that she couldn’t add to what Jesus did on the cross, and she couldn’t take away from it either. She simply had to receive it.
Burning the Ships of the Past
After her discharge, Courtney gathered all her remaining pills. Luke found her in the bathroom, flushing them down the toilet. “These pills represent so much shame and guilt,” she told him. “I just need to see them leave.”
Luke thought of the old story about explorers who burned their ships upon reaching new land. It forced them forward because retreat was no longer an option. That’s what Courtney was doing. She was burning her ships.
From Fear to Freedom: Conquering the Spirit of Anxiety
The Lingering Effects of Trauma
Recovery from addiction didn’t immediately erase the anxiety. Courtney still battled what she describes as a “controlling and life-sucking spirit of fear.” Her mind would spiral into worst-case scenarios. The trauma of holding her dead son lingered in her body and psyche.
The Turning Point: A New Perspective on Fear
A mentor spoke words that changed everything: “Fear is a spirit, but that spirit is under the foot of Jesus, and Jesus lives in you.”
It was a truth bomb. Courtney realized that on September 15, 2017, her greatest fear had actually happened. She had held her dead child. The enemy had meant to destroy her. But instead of destroying her faith, it destroyed her fear.
She still feels afraid sometimes. She still worries. But fear no longer rules her. It doesn’t get to occupy the precious soil of her mind where seeds of faith are meant to grow.
Living with Unshakable Confidence
Today, Courtney talks about living with unshakable confidence. Not confidence in herself, but in the finished work of Christ. She no longer feels like a victim when hard things happen. She knows she’ll be okay because God is a healer and nothing is impossible for Him.
The Technicolor Woman: A Ministry of Hope
From Personal Pain to Public Proclamation
Courtney’s personal journey became the foundation for her public ministry. She began sharing what she calls her “heart-birthed, personal God stories.” These aren’t sanitized testimonies. They’re raw, real accounts of struggle and redemption.
The Message of “Technicolor Woman”
Her book, “Technicolor Woman,” is a 31-day devotional that invites women into a different way of living. It’s about awakening to your truest identity and trading false identities for gospel truth.
A technicolor woman, according to Courtney, is someone who knows who she is, consecrates herself to inner transformation, and orders the currencies of her life—time, money, energy, and focus—around what truly matters. The result is a life that blooms in fullness.
The book is filled with what she calls “real-time truth bombs” and laugh-out-loud anecdotes, all grounded in Scripture. It’s the kind of devotional that feels like coffee with a friend who isn’t afraid to tell you the truth.
Empowering Women to Live in Full Color
Through speaking engagements and her writing, Courtney works to help women understand their place in the Kingdom of God. She wants them to know they’re deeply loved, able to bloom into their identity, and free from burdens Jesus never intended them to carry.
In a culture that constantly tells women who they should be, Courtney wants to tell them who God already says they are. It’s a message of liberation, not obligation. Of grace, not performance.
A Life Transformed: Courtney Smallbone Today
A Legacy of Faith Over Fear
Courtney Smallbone’s life today looks vastly different from the woman who once hid pills and battled crippling anxiety. She still lives on the farm, still raises cattle and kids, still travels with Luke’s band. But internally, everything has shifted.
Her greatest desire now is to impart faith, not fear, to her children and to the generations that follow. She wants to live her busy, full days with the kind of confidence that can only come from knowing you’re held by a God who raises the dead.
A Beacon of Hope for the Hurting
For anyone who has faced unspeakable pain, paralyzing anxiety, or soul-gripping fear, Courtney’s story offers something precious: hope. Not the cheap kind that ignores reality, but the deep-rooted kind that has been tested and proven.
She’s living proof that your greatest fear doesn’t have to be your final chapter. That addiction doesn’t have to define you. That the God who performs miracles is still in the business of transformation.
Courtney Smallbone has learned to stomp out fear and welcome adventure. She’s traded black and white for technicolor. And she’s inviting anyone who will listen to do the same.
- I’m Aliza, the founder of Urdu Novel Bank. I built this site because I love Urdu stories and want everyone to enjoy them. As an Urdu literature lover, I choose the best novels to share with you. Here you can find free Urdu novels in romance, mystery, thriller and more. Read online or download PDF chapters without signing up. I update the library often so you’ll always have new tales to explore. My goal is to bring Urdu literature to readers around the world.
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