The Duggars

Are you familiar with the Duggar family?  If you hate them, please feel free to stop reading now. They used to have a TV show on the TLC network called "19 Kids and Counting". After it was revealed that the eldest son Josh Duggar had "issues" the show was cancelled. It was reinvented by TLC as "Counting On" with a focus on the other Duggar children, who are all growing up, courting, marrying, and having babies of their own.

For the record, I do think Josh is sketchy and I'm glad that he is not on the show any longer. Although to give him the benefit of the doubt, supposedly he has been to rehab and is reformed.

Last week, Grandma Mary Duggar passed away unexpectedly at age 78 after a drowning accident. When I googled it, the first thing to pop up was something to the effect that "Jill Duggar Dillard is exploiting her grandmother's death by blogging about it."

Say what? That is beyond ridiculous.  Jill and Derick Dillard have a blog which you can find here if you are interested: www.dillardfamily.com.  Yes, that blog is monetized, like many blogs are. When you click on it, you will see ads.  I saw an ad for Fitbit watches and one to donate to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

As I expected, Jill's tribute to her grandmother was beautiful. Jill wrote "My grandma taught me to thank God in every situation, realizing that only He can see the big picture. She would say, “Praise the Lord” all the time, and even talked about how thanking God for tough things that happened helped her release it to Him and acknowledge that he was ultimately in control."

Jessa Duggar Seewald, Grandma Mary holding baby Ivy Jane, Michelle Duggar (photo courtesy of Facebook/Duggar Family)

While I was perusing the blog, I found so many well written, mature and honest discussions about God, marriage, parenting and other topics.  There was a post by Jill about marriage.  Let me tell you that even after 33 years of marriage there were some thought-provoking tips in that article. Two in particular struck a chord with me:
1. Look for ways to encourage your hubby, serve him and meet his needs.
2. Don’t gossip or name call, even if joking.

My takeaway is that people who hate on the Duggars could probably learn a lot from the Duggars.