CeCe Winans says watching her father worship God at her brother's hospital bedside changed the way she faces grief and hardship.
In a conversation with Sheila Walsh shared on Praise on TBN's YouTube channel on November 5, the gospel singer recalled the moment her brother Ronald took his final breath. With the family gathered around his bed, her father lifted his hands and began thanking God for his son's life.
"His first words were like, 'Lord, I thank you for the years you gave us Ronald. I thank you,'" Winans recalled.
The response stayed with her. She had grown up hearing her father sing and pray, sometimes waking during the night to find him worshipping and anointing his children's heads with oil. But seeing him praise God while losing a child gave those childhood memories a deeper meaning.
Winans remembered her parents' tears and the way their faith sustained them through bereavement. Their example continues to shape her own response to difficult seasons.
"When I'm going through a rough time, a challenging time, I know even if I'm crying, I cry with my hands lifted up," she said. "And it gives me the strength because worship always puts your focus on the greatness of God."
That experience helps explain her passion for leading others in worship. Winans described worship as both a gift and a weapon that helps her turn to God when life becomes painful.
The conversation also explored her desire to pass that faith to younger generations through Generations Live, her gatherings for women, and Generations, the online show she hosts with her daughter, Ashley.
Inspired by her experiences at Women of Faith conferences, Winans said she wanted to create opportunities for mothers, grandmothers, daughters and sisters to worship together, build relationships and encourage one another.
Reflecting on the believers who prayed for and guided her when she was young, she said she now feels responsible for offering that same support to those coming after her.
Winans also expressed confidence in younger Christians. Recalling the early years of the church she and her husband founded, she said the millennials they encountered wanted a sincere relationship with God.
Looking back over her own life and career, Winans said her advice to her younger self would be simple: trust God.
"Everything I had to face, he was right there," she said.
She closed the conversation by encouraging viewers who feel broken or unworthy to receive God's love, then prayed that they would experience that love personally.
