In Their Own Words: Weird Stories and Confessions From the Duggar Family Blogs

Josh admitted he struggled with ~temptation~ in his teens way before the reports came out.

In Touch broke the news back in 2015, but even before that, the oldest Duggar son hinted on his website that he'd had some trouble when he was younger.

"I was raised in a Christian home. As a young man, I was taught to wait for God's best in my life partner. But as time went along and I grew older it was harder to keep my heart only for the one that God had for my life partner… As I became a teenage young man I was constantly tempted to have lots of wrong thoughts, and often battled to keep my heart right… I often had failures in my early teenage years, but found I had a clear conscience only when I was willing to confess my thoughts and temptations quickly to God & my parents."

Well, nice to know he felt his guilty conscious about molesting his sisters was clear as long as he 'fessed up to it. Too bad it seems like he's still struggling with temptation now, too…

Josh and Anna gave the weirdest overview of the courting process.

Here's how it goes: Duggar is famous. Non-Duggar sees the Duggar on TV/in a newspaper/as a local celebrity at church or whatever. The boy is immediately in love. The girl waits for her father to tell her she's in love. And then they get to go on a date and hope it goes well because they're basically already at the altar getting married. But first, a little casual-volunteer work in a prison. Sound good?

"When I was 13 I first heard about the Duggar family, through mutual friends. It was Christmas Day, and I read an article about the Duggars that a friend had sent to us. The Duggars had 13 children at the time, and I thought it would be neat to meet them one day!" Anna wrote. "Just after the Duggars first show aired on the Discovery Health Channel, some friends of ours sent us a copy of '14 Children & Pregnant Again!' As my family watched the video, I noticed how Joshua, then age 16, shared the importance of guarding his heart and waiting for someone who would really love him and wasn't going to just get carried away with their emotions."

They met at a conference, and Josh wrote, "As we talked, I felt God speak to my heart that this was the girl I was going to marry someday! … By that night I still could not get her off my mind! I went to my dad and told him what I felt like God had told me." A little while later, he doubled down: "I told him that I was for sure that Anna was the one for me. He agreed that God was moving us in that direction & counseled me to keep praying for our relationship."

Things were different for Anna: "While at the Duggars home, I noticed Joshua had many of the things I desired in a future partner. I began to commit those desires to the Lord, and reaffirmed my commitment to wait on Him to lead through my parents in that area… A few weeks later my Dad and I were out running an errand together. While we were driving home he asked me if there were any young men God had been speaking to me about. My Dad had never asked me a question like that before, but I knew what he was getting at… so I told him how I felt God speaking to my heart about Joshua. Much to my amazement my Dad surprised me by saying that he believed Joshua was the one for me!"

From there, things got serious for the couple. "After finishing my first week of seminars with Anna's brother in a Central Florida maximum security State Prison, we returned to the Kellers' home. I could not wait any longer, I knew that the ball was in my court! After dinner and sharing the evening with the family, I asked to talk with Mr. Keller, alone! Everyone else quickly hurried off to bed, and I fumbled to put my thoughts into words… finally I got it out …'I feel like God is leading me into a relationship with your daughter Anna, could I have your permission to court her?'"

See, it's all totally casual and definitely not weird. Why would you think courting would be weird?

Josh explained how Michelle and Jim Bob give the sex talk to their kids.

Which is something that you'd think would come up a lot when you're constantly pregnant and popping out babies, but apparently, the Duggar parents would rather avoid the subject until right before your wedding night.

"As I grew older, I began to realize that there were two different kinds of people in this world – men and women," Josh wrote. "My parents shared with me a story of a young girl who asked her father a question about 'that' subject. Her father replied by handing her his suitcase and asking her to carry it. As the little girl tried to pick up the suitcase she quickly said, 'I'm not big enough to carry it, its too heavy for me!' Her father had illustrated his point. He then told his daughter, 'Some things are too heavy for you to carry right now, but when you are older you will be able to handle them.' It was that father's hope, and my parents' desire that inspired them to train their children to guard their hearts and keep them pure – knowing that the day would come when they would be able to carry that 'suitcase.'"

And we can see just how well that worked out for Josh.

Jill Googled Derick before she met him.

This is actually one of the most normal things about their courtship, though. Always good to get some background deets before you know, you meet the person you're going to get engaged to.

"After I kept hearing good things about this guy I decided I'd look him up on my own, so I Googled him and got a little glimpse from his social media outlets. I thought it was really neat how we had similar life goals and all, so I prayed about him for a little while, but then I prayed that God would allow me to not think seriously about any guys until it was His timing to begin a relationship and 'the one.'"

Relatable, though, for the most part.

Jill thinks poor people are sad because they're not thinking long term enough.

And not just in the "stop drinking Starbucks and eating avocado toast every day and you can buy a house easy" sense. We're talking about the really long-term sense.

"I went on my first short-term missions trip to El Salvador as a teenager with some of my siblings and dad," she wrote. "My heart was immediately captured as I saw the poverty and hopelessness a lot of people there were experiencing because their hope lay only in this world, not in a relationship with Jesus Christ."

Hmm, OK, but what about you know, not having help getting access to the resources to, like, feed and shelter their kids and stuff? It's fine.

Ben said he loved Jessa before they ever went on a date.

Yep, even before they were courting, while they were just in their "getting to know you" stage, things were hot and heavy. And by hot and heavy, of course, we mean they were already daydreaming about holding hands and maybe even front-hugs.

In a letter to Ben posted to their family blog, Jessa wrote, "I loved everything about you– your smile, your laugh, your sense of humor, and I could tell that you loved me too, though we'd yet to speak those words. And then it happened… you told me that you loved me. I cried. (And I'm not a super emotional person!) A few days later, you took me on our first date."

Look, sure, this is how we used to date back in middle school, too, where you'd confess your love for someone over AIM and then try to convince your parents to let you go to the movies together by yourselves, but we weren't trying to get married five minutes later. But hey, to each their own, we guess.

Ben's interests include God, abolishing abortion, and getting swole AF.

Pumping iron at the gym — right up there next to praising the lord and extremely one-issue political action. Hallelujah, are we right?

On the about page of their website, here's how Ben chose to introduce himself: "Jesus is EVERYTHING to me. Without Him, I am nothing. Christ is my King and I am striving to use my life to glorify him, and to point others towards his saving grace… I have a passion for the rights of the unborn. Abortion is murder, and it is tolerated today in the nation which I live. I will not stand by and do nothing while unborn human beings are daily being brutally sacrificed on the bloody alter of human convenience. My hope and prayer is that I will live to see the day when this great crime against humanity is totally abolished and eradicated from the face of the earth… I work out quite a bit. I am extremely competitive, and like to play sports (football is my favorite). I am also an amateur artist as well as a big Arkansas Razorbacks fan."

Really went from 0-100 fast there — and then right back to 0. It's casual, you guys.

The Duggars used to scam their way into free food.

We already knew it, but it's nice to hear them saying it.

When writing a letter to her dad for Father's Day, Jessa let this little nugget slip: "Yes, we most definitely took advantage of kids-eat-free, the modern day policies of '2 children per paying adult' probably happened because of us." AKA the Duggars rolled up to restaurants left and right, sat themselves down, and said, "Kids eat free, right? Okay, cool!" and then ushered in their 19 kids.

Table for 21?

Jessa doesn't know how to pronounce simple words like "hanger."

Guess they didn't cover that at Michelle's kitchen table.

Jessa relayed a whole ~incident~ involving the word's pronunciation in one of her blogs:
"Me: Well how do you say it?
You: Without the hard 'g' sound.
'Whatttt? No way. That sounds weird.'
'Babe, you don't say the hard 'g' sound at the end of the words 'sing' or 'hang' do you? So say 'hang' and then add '-er' on the end.'
'Ahh, still sounds weird!'"

She also switches how she writes dialogue halfway through the conversation, so it looks like she's got a few lessons left to finish before she becomes the teacher for her own kids.

Ben Seewald saw the Marvel movie Thor and he f–king hated it.

We thought mainstream movies like this were pretty much off-limits, but it turns out it's cool to watch them as long as you're just planning to rip them apart in a blog post later.

After summarizing the whole movie (because you know his target audience isn't technically allowed to see it either), he wrote, "Wow! What a storyline right? So compelling! What a hero! But Thor's heroism pales in comparison to the true story of Jesus and what He did to rescue man from destruction… Unlike Thor, Jesus is perfect and sinless, worthy of all praise and worship… Unlike Thor, Jesus voluntarily came to earth and humbled himself, cloaking His infinite glory in a finite, mortal, weak human body… Unlike Thor, Jesus didn't die for innocent bystanders who had done him no wrong. He took the just punishment of guilty sinners who had personally sinned against Him."

It's… just a movie, Ben.

Jessa absolutely can't cook, just for the record.

But apparently, Ben is great at it. Good thing someone in their house can cook, or they'd be stuck eating Chick-fil-A every dang day.

"Ok, can I brag on your cooking skills for a min?" Jessa wrote to Ben on their blog. "How is it that you can think up recipes off the top of your head, and they actually taste good? I, on the other hand, try to be a cool chef… so I substitute sour cream when we run out of milk for the pancakes. It's dairy, right? No, that was not ok. You love the challenge of making a complicated recipe. I don't. I dump dressing on greens, and that's my salad. You gather 14 ingredients and spend 20 min throwing together an amazing Greek salad that tops any Mediterranean restaurant around."

Sour cream in pancakes. Girl, come on. Well, we're sure she finds other ways to be a good helpmate for Ben. Just stay away from the kitchen, okay?

Jessa was so thirsty for that ring that she was literally like, "Just go to Claire's, okay?!"

After all, they were already in love before their first date, so time was just a-wastin' after that. And Jill, who'd started courting after she had gotten engaged first, so, you know, it was time to get moving.

"We knew we wanted to spend forever together, but we still needed to get some things together before we were prepared to take that next step. I told you to buy me a ring from Claire's," Jessa wrote. "I didn't care if it turned my finger green if it meant we could save up quicker for our future together! But you reminded me that you wanted it to last forever. So you worked hard and continued saving. You picked out a gorgeous princess cut diamond that you had set in a unique band– unlike anything I'd ever seen before!"

Just wondering, would a Ring Pop have been classier than a Claire's ring that discolors your whole hand?

Jessa and Ben are totally cool to sleep in a pile of baby puke, BTW.

Or baby pee. Or other baby messes. It's not a problem. Their house is already pretty messy, so what's the big deal, right?

"Speaking of laundry, you know you're a mature father when you discover late at night that a kid just peed or spit up on your side of the bed, and changing the sheets doesn't even cross your mind," Jessa wrote. "I'll just throw a bath towel on it for tonight and call it good."

Cool. Gross.

Jeremy Vuolo had some hard-partying years.

We already knew that Jeremy had been in some trouble with the law before meeting Jinger, but it's still interesting to hear him talk about it himself.

"The test of my own faith came during the last year of high school. I had been homeschooled most of my life but began attending public school in my junior and senior year and it was during my senior year that a lot of sin in my heart began to be exposed. I began getting involved in the weekend party scene.. This continued into college and my sin just continued to spiral my life downward. Although I am very grateful for how much the Lord's mercy spared me from during that time, I was part of the college party scene and was not living wisely. I began sliding down the slippery, destructive slopes of lust, selfishness, and pride."

He doesn't get into the specifics of his arrest, though. If you want those deets, you can get them here.

So did Jinger, uh, spiritually.

Apparently, they bonded over having had ~troubled pasts.~ Sounds juicy, but the reality is not so much.

"I was raised in a Christian home and would have been considered a 'good kid'—fairly obedient to my parents, kind to my siblings, didn’t steal the cookie from the cookie jar—you know, 'that' kid," Jinger wrote on her website with Jeremy. "But there was a time—in my early teenage years—when I realized that, even though I appeared 'good', I was personally guilty before a holy God because, in my heart, I was in rebellion against Him… I, just as the Bible testifies in Romans 3:10-12, had turned aside to my own way and was seeking and pursuing my own glory… I cried out to God to forgive me for my rebellious heart—wanting to live for myself and my own vain glory instead of His."

But just don't forget to think a little about your own glory, OK, Jing? We promise, it's not the end of the world to also care about your own life.

Jeremy was attracted to Jinger because she's "meek."

We get that calling someone meek is a total biblical compliment, especially in this family. But there's something unsettling about it when Jeremy says it. Probably because Jinger was always the rebellious one, and even now is the pioneer when it comes to breaking modesty rules in her family. These two were supposed to be the bad boy and girl in love. But he likes her because she's meek? Interesting.

About their love story, Jeremy wrote, "Over the rest of that year I would visit the Seewalds every so often and have the chance to interact with all of the Duggars and get to know Jinger a bit… I called Ben and Jess and began asking them more questions about her—of course, everything they said only confirmed what I had already been seeing: a humble, meek, modest, intelligent young woman with a burning desire to sacrificially serve the Lord in any way she could."

Humble, meek, modest? What about spirited or artistic? No? Meek it is then.