Jill Duggar Says Short Engagement to Derick Dillard Was to ‘Remain Pure’ and Avoid Setting up ‘Natural Desires’

Jill Duggar Says Short Engagement to Derick Dillard Was to ‘Remain Pure’ and Avoid Setting up ‘Natural Desires’
Zachary Stieber
9/7/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

Jill Duggar says that the short engagement period for her and new husband Derick Dillard was to help them “remain pure.”

The Duggar family, who are featured in a TLC reality show, have notably strict dating rules that include no hand holding until the couple is engaged and no kissing until marriage.

“We prayed a lot, prepared and really didn’t see any reason to have a long courtship and engagement,” Duggar told the New York Post.

“Once we knew we wanted to get married, we didn’t want to put off the wedding for a long time and provide a stumbling block for ourselves. We purposed to save ourselves physically for each other within marriage (even our first kiss for our wedding day!), so we had a short engagement period. We knew that we weren’t going to prevent having children, so when we found out we were expecting within our first month of marriage, we were thrilled!”

When it comes to avoiding physical temptation, Duggar recommends a short engagement period.

“You may not wanna push the wedding date out too far, as those natural God-given desires with too much time between engagement and marriage can make it harder to remain pure. If you are financially ready, and things are in place (which should be at the time the question is popped), we believe an engagement should only be long enough to plan a wedding!”

The wedding between Duggar and Dillard is part of this season of 19 Kids and Counting, the TLC reality show.