Joy-Anna Duggar Admits That She Struggled With Her Family’s Faith In ‘Counting On’ Sneak Peek

A tearful Joy-Anna Duggar credits a family member for helping her embrace her parents’ faith. In a sneak peek of the Counting On season finale obtained by Us Weekly, the Duggar daughter admits that there was a time in her life when she questioned her family’s legalistic brand of Christianity.

During next Monday’s two-hour episode of Counting On, viewers will get to watch Joseph Duggar and Kendra Caldwell’s wedding for the second time. However, some never-before-seen footage has been added to the super-sized season finale, including the speech that Joy-Anna gave at Joseph and Kendra’s wedding rehearsal dinner. In a teaser clip of the emotional moment, tears stream down the Duggar daughter’s face and her voice cracks as she speaks about the important role Joseph played in changing her life. Her husband, Austin Forsyth, offers his support by placing his arm around her while she speaks.

“I can’t speak and cry. It’s terrible. First of all I want to say that Joe, I’m so thankful for you. You really did change my life,” Joy-Anna says to her sibling.

“Just through my teen years, I think I was having a hard time taking my parents’ faith as my own and you really befriended me as an older brother.”

Joy-Anna didn’t elaborate on why it was such a struggle for her to adopt the beliefs of her parents, former 19 Kids and Counting stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. The Duggars are Independent Baptists who follow the teachings of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), a religious organization founded by Bill Gothard.

As reported by Babygaga, female members of the Duggar family are expected to fit a certain mold. They’re encouraged to only wear dresses and skirts (no pants allowed), and they’re discouraged from attending college or pursuing careers of their own. Instead, they become mothers, homemakers, and “helpmeets” to their husbands.

Joy-Anna has settled into her new life as a wife and mother after giving birth to her first child last month. However, there was a time when she was not what her parents envisioned as the ideal godly woman. According to People, her family members used to consider her a tomboy. When she was younger, she loved playing outdoors with her brothers. She’d rather climb trees than fuss with her hair, and she had little interest in going shopping with her older sisters. During a 2016 episode of Counting On, Joy-Anna hinted that her behavior was seen as unacceptable for a girl, so she eventually tried to change.

“I think being the only girl in the middle of eight brothers, I was definitely a tomboy back in the day, I was always hanging out with my brothers,” she said. “But now I’m kind of getting out of that stage and trying to grow out of that.”

If Joy-Anna Duggar’s issue with her parents’ faith was the pressure that they put on their kids to conform to traditional gender roles, it’s clear that’s she’s moved past it. She’s thrilled to be a wife and mother, and she sounds just like her parents and married sisters when she says that she’s leaving the number of children she has up to the Lord.

Duggar fans can watch Joy-Anna thank Joseph for changing her feelings about her family’s faith when the Counting On season finale airs Monday, March 26 at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.