Counting The Cost Quotes
"My parents didn’t believe in magic. They didn’t believe in dancing, either. But they understood the power of music."
"We need to be very, very careful about the way that we move our bodies."
"As girls, Mom made almost all our clothes, and we only ever wore full-length skirts or dresses."
"Out there, my parents’ protection could only go so far."
"When you see someone dressed immodestly, it’s okay to tell your siblings not to look, but don’t put the other person down."
"By the end of the talk, there was no more jumping."
"The Duggar family kept on growing, and by the time Mom gave birth to Johannah, her sixteenth, the TV crews were regular visitors to our little home."
"If anything, I was grateful for the boundaries they laid down for our family."
"People would often ask me how I felt about it all, typically assuming that I loved it, and that being on TV was the coolest thing ever."
"The show—and by extension the entire Duggar family—was a vehicle for profit."
"What I found the hardest, though, were the ways the show intruded on my most private moments."
"The longer the show ran, the deeper we had to dig to keep things fresh."
"Derick and I had started talking regularly after the call on the bus, and the more we talked the more I liked him."
"I was feeling nervous, even though I knew I had Mom and Pops’ full blessing."
"But saying no to the cameras was not an option."
"I cried on his shoulder when I said goodbye in the car at the airport."
"Some things are not worth the cost. Some things are not for sale."
"I was tired and stressed and for a while I tried to dig in and hold my ground."
"I was like an astronaut who’d landed back on earth, still unsure of what I’d just been through."
"It was a privilege to witness him come alive like this in El Salvador."
"I knew the answer, but I didn’t want to tell him."
"I was proud of my husband too. He’d fought for his family, just like he’d promised to do on the day we got married."
"If you don’t come back for this filming thing, everything’s going to get messed up."
"Are you gonna be okay carrying that burden?"
"You’re gonna get sued! You’re gonna need whatever money you have, because you’re going to be sued!"
"If the courts didn’t punish me, maybe God would."
"I’m sorry for some of the things I said."
"Do you know what happens if you break a legally binding contract?"
"I could feel the blood rush to my face."
"Everything was looking good for the final weeks."
"But the pain was like nothing I’d ever known."
"It meant the baby was potentially in distress."
"We’re doing a C-section, now! Prep for surgery!"
"But it was all too vast. All too unknowable."
"I felt stuck. I felt like I was in chains, and I couldn’t break free from the past."
"Ever since he got a smartphone Pops had been taking videos of anyone he’d met who complimented him on the show and how it had made a positive impact on their lives, then he’d share it with the rest of the family on the group text."
"It was a way of encouraging people, a reminder of what the ministry was all about."
"I’m sorry it took so long for this meeting to happen."
"There have been some very hurtful things that have happened, and so we wanted to sort it all out."
"We love y’all and I know we all hope to be able to restore family relationships very soon."
"Do not let this get any worse than it already is."
"I’m evolving and changing, just like that girl out there, but you can’t see it."
"You treat me worse than you treat my pedophile brother."
"A therapist is just someone you’re paying to be your friend."
"I realized two amazing things. First, that maybe the act of talking about the tough journey that we’d been on could actually be of help to some of the people I loved most."
"I was finally learning to build healthy relationships and have a healthier, less fear driven view of God."
"For the first time it was clear that some of them were beginning to be skeptical of the narrative they’d been hearing at home."
"I wanted to know the truth. I wanted the evidence to come out."
"I was finally able to see my eldest brother for what he was—a man unable to control himself, totally detached from the reality of how deeply he was hurting others."
"I felt plagued by this, humiliated just like before."
"I realized how much I missed my innocent childhood."
"The days when we used to just run around and play, picking fruit from the trees that filled our yard."
"It was hard to process everything, hard to pick through everything that I had been taught—both at home and in church—and filter truth from lies."
"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
"Our hearts go out to the victims of child abuse or any kind of exploitation."