Jep and Jessica Robertson - The Good, the Bad, and the Grace of God: What Honesty and Pain Taught Us About Faith, Family, and Forgiveness

The Good, the Bad, and the Grace of God

2015 Jep Robertson and Jessica Robertson

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Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by W Publishing Group, an imprint of Thomas Nelson.

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Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-7180-3559-4 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015932949

ISBN 978-0-7180-3148-0

15 16 17 18 19 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

We would like to dedicate our book to our children: Lily, Merritt, Priscilla, and River. We are so grateful that God blessed us with four miracles. Seeing life come into this world has been life changing.

We hope that our life journey can better equip you for the world and that you can learn from our struggles and mistakes. More importantly, we hope you know God Almighty is there with you always; He loves you, and nothing you do will ever change that.

Contents

THANK YOU, JESUS, FOR WHAT YOUVE DONE, ARE DOING, AND WILL continue to do for a good ole boy from North Louisiana. Thank you, God, for the best parents a man could ever hope for.

My incredible brothers, thanks for always having my back and showing me how men of God are supposed to live. My terrific sisters-in-law, thanks for putting up with my bros and being good friends and mentors for Jess.

My blood brothersFishbone, Nicky Tightpants, McG, G.G., ZDash, Maxiand all the countless friends whove been there through the good, the bad, and the grace of God.

Jep

THANK YOU, GOD, FOR THE DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION OF Jesus Christ. Without it, I would have no hope.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for all youve done for me. Thanks, Stacy, for being such a wonderful sister; you and Andy have always been there for me.

To my sistasEmily, Tara, Ashleigh, Jil, Ericaand all my gals: you are all amazing women of God and bless my life. Thanks for being such great friends and being there for me through the best and toughest of times.

To Korie, Missy, and Lisa: you are three of the most amazing women, and Im honored to call you sisters and friends. Kay, you will never know the impact you have made in my life. You and Phil have shown Jep and me how to love each other for better or for worse and how to forgive and move forward. To my bros-in-law: you seriously are the best brothers a girl could ever ask for. Thanks for the commitment you all made to stay close to your family. Its a legacy of faith and family that will be passed on for generations to come.

Jessica

WE ALSO WANT TO SAY THANKS TO MEL, MARGARET, AND MATT FOR believing in our story. To Jessie, Deana, and all the WME agents: thanks for all your hard work. Yall are the best!

Jep and Jessica

LOVE LETTERS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A BIG PART OF OUR LIVES.

Weve written love letters to each other.

Miss Kay wrote some very special letters to Jep (her favorite) at a crucial time in his life.

Jessica has been writing letterssome long, some shortto our kids, Lily, Merritt, Priscilla, and River. She pours out whatever is on her mind or in her heart at that moment for them to read when they grow up.

Now our girls have taken up writing love letters, mostly to us and to their mamaws. Perhaps someday theyll be writing to their husbands too.

But the most precious letter of all is one that we treasure mostGods love letter to us. Without it, wed still be lost. Studying Gods words together was part of what kept us together when everything else was tearing us apart. God is the glue that holds our marriage together.

We are like the rest of the Robertson family. We care much more about love than money or fame or expensive toys. We care about our children and family and friends and being together. We want more than anything else to be rich in love.

This is the story of how we met and how our love started when we had both stumbled and struggled to find our way in life and were losing hope. Its also the story of how forgiveness can break down the barriers that stand in your way, put you on the path of grace, and give you a fresh new start.

This is our story, both the good and the bad.

This is our love letter to you.

Jep and Jessica

Jep and Jess

Life is so full of unpredictable beauty and strange surprises.

Mark Oliver Everett, Things the Grandchildren Should Know

ONCE UPON A TIME A GIRL FROM TOWN MET A BOY FROM THE WOODS.

Even back then, it was all about the hair. I was at Connie Sues in West Monroe to get my long hair colored, cut, and blown out. When he opened the door and walked in, I looked up, and there he was.

Jep.

Im the fourth son of a fourth son. My name is Jules Jeptha Robertson, and I have three older brothers, Alan, Jase, and Willie. You might have heard of them.

Most people call me Jep, but my first name is Jules. Mom and Dad named me after the hero in the Yul Brynner movie Invitation to a Gunfighter. My middle name is Jeptha, after a great-grandfather who died in a shootout over a land dispute. Theres also a Jephthah in the Bible, spelled with two extra hs. He was a judge and led the people of Israel into battle against a group of people called the Ammonites. The Israelites won.

Maybe its not a coincidence that Ive always been interested in heroes, starting with my dad, Phil Robertson, and my mom, Miss Kay. My other heroes are my pa and my granny, who taught me how to play cards and dominoes and everything about fishing (which was a lot), and my three older brothers, who teased me, beat me up, and sometimes let me follow them around. Not much has changed in that department.

Ive always loved movies, and when I was about seven or eight years old, I watched Rocky, Sylvester Stallones movie about an underdog boxer who used his fists, along with sheer will, determination, and the ability to endure pain, to make a way for himself. He fought hard but played fair and had a soft spot for his friends. I fell in love with Rocky. He was my hero, and I became obsessed.

When I decide to do something, Im all in; so I found a pair of red shorts that looked like Rockys boxing trunks and a navy blue bathrobe with two white stripes on the sleeve and no belt. I took off my shirt and ran around bare-chested in my robe and shorts. Most kids I knew went through a superhero phase, but they picked DC Comics guys, like Batman or Superman. Not me. I was Rocky Balboa, the Italian Stallion, and proud of it. Mom let me run around like that for a couple of years, even when we went in to town.