Parenting & Family Quote by Michael W. Smith

Relationships are the quiet scoreboard in Michael W. Smith's worldview, and he’s deliberately keeping the stakes small and daily. Coming from a musician known for faith-forward work, this isn’t a slogan about “being nice.” It’s a redirect: away from stage-sized achievement and toward the unglamorous ethics of proximity. The line works because it collapses the distance between public identity and private character. If your career is built on uplift, the real credibility test isn’t the encore; it’s the grocery store.

The intent is almost pastoral. By listing “wife,” “kids,” then “the guys at the grocery store,” Smith builds a moral ladder that refuses hierarchy. Family gets named first because that’s where hypocrisy is easiest to hide and hardest to sustain. Then he widens the circle to strangers, implying that integrity isn’t situational. You don’t get to be tender at home and entitled in public, or generous on stage and short-tempered in a checkout line.

Subtextually, it’s also a gentle critique of modern busyness and “calling” culture. “What I’m involved in” sits at the end like a demotion: projects matter, but only as extensions of how you treat people. For an artist whose work can be consumed as inspiration, the statement insists on embodiment. The song isn’t the point; the relational residue you leave in ordinary places is.