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Kevin Bacon Surprises Students at High School Where ‘Footloose’ Was Filmed — Announces He’s Visiting Them for Prom

After some very serious lobbying from students at Payson High School in Payson, Utah, where “Footloose” was filmed, Kevin Bacon announced Friday that he would be returning to the high school for this year’s senior prom. 

“My Last Thought Was a Desperate Plea to God, ‘Lord, Give Me the Strength to Die Well’”: Mom With ‘Invisible Illness’ Shares Her Harrowing...

"'Help me to not look like I am suffocating,' I prayed. 'Lord, please protect my son’s heart from this.’ And I faded away."

“My Husband Turned Blue to Gray”: Wife In Shock Over the One Drink That Killed Her Husband

"The doctor's exact words were 'People drinking these drinks are playing Russian Roulette with their lives.' I was blown away and couldn’t believe just one drink could do this damage"... And KIDS can buy these anywhere.

Duck Dynasty’s Kay Robertson on Her Breaking Point with Husband Phil That Drove Them Both into the Arms of God

As the revered patriarch and matriarch of the Duck Dynasty family, many perceive Phil and Kay Roberston to have the picture-perfect marriage. But it turns out, the road that led them to the unbreakable bond they share today was paved in anything but roses. In a recent Focus on the Family broadcast hosted by Jim Daly and John Fuller, the reality TV stars opened up about their tumultuous early years and how God forged their marriage in the fire of his love.

After having the concept of “one man and one wife for one life” seared in her heart by her grandmother, Kay always thought she would live in one of those fairy-tale ‘happily ever after’ love stories that didn’t require much work. She admits the idea of fighting for her marriage sounded like a totally “ridiculous” concept — until she found herself battling for dear life just to hang on to her own.

In their 20s, Phil and Kay started to have struggles that neither of them foresaw in their lovestruck honeymoon stage.

As a bar owner, Phil often spent many late nights getting drunk and neglecting his wife, which was far from the fairy-tale expectation Kay had in mind… especially for a girl who had always been relatively “good.” How did she deserve this kind of treatment, and how had she failed at the thing she poured her WHOLE heart and soul into?

“The problem was — in a nutshell, is that I didn’t know Jesus,” said Phil.

After many years of rebellion, he recalled the moment he sat down with a preacher (who he was previously rude to) who patiently told him about the hope in Jesus.

“I listened to what he had to say,” said Phil. “Well, he then proceeded to tell me God becoming flesh, Jesus — I’m like — died on a cross to remove my sins, which were many, and was buried in a tomb. And when he got to the resurrection of the dead, he said, ‘Three days after he died, Phil, for your sins, he was raised from the dead.’ I didn’t know that. And I thought, ‘Huh.’ I said, ‘How in the world did I ever miss that?'”

But Phil being presented with the Truth did not translate into an instant conversion or a restoration of his crumbling relationship with his wife.


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Kay vividly recalled her breaking point with Phil as she poured her tears out on the bathroom floor one night early in their marriage:

“That night, I mean, it was just so hard. I went in the bathroom, and I remember feeling like – I know how people feel when they get just completely hopeless because the thing that I had put my life into, which was my marriage, my children, the home, everything – but what I really didn’t understand – the reason I didn’t do a lot of bad things that he did and all that, it was my grandmother, but I was operating on her faith, or trying to. But, you know, that night is when I realized that I had to have my own faith… But that night, I literally went in that bathroom, and I was on the floor crying. And he was drunk in the living room. And I was crying. And I really, really, for the first time in my life thought, I want to just go to sleep and not wake up. I wanted to do anything that – so he’ll see. Of course, I really don’t think I wanted to die, but I wanted to hurt him or do something where he would be shocked.”

For the first time in her life, Kay thought it would be an easier way out to just disappear, if only for the sake of getting the attention from her husband that she so desperately yearned for.

“I really did have the suicide thoughts,” she added. “There’s no doubt about that. And I can’t say I didn’t, because I did.”

And that’s when her first little miracle of restoration happened. God walked in the room through the tiny footsteps of her 9-year-old son Alan…

“And that’s when I tell the story – and it’s a true story – that I heard these three little feet – sets of feet – and I could hear them because they had the house shoes on. I know because I bought them. And knock, knock, knock. And Alan always says that was his first sermon. And it was… And he said, ‘Mama, don’t cry. Don’t cry anymore.’ He said, ‘God is going take care of us.'”

“It was my starting of repentance,” said Kay.

Soon after, she decided to sit down with the same preacher who her husband talked to in order to learn more about finding a faith of her own:

“And when I went to that same man that he talked to – and I went to him the next day over at the church and it was about 30 minutes or 20 minutes from where I lived. You know – he said, ‘Well, do you think if you died tonight you’d go to heaven?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d shoot up there like a rocket.’ I said, ‘Let me tell you about who I’ve been living with.’ So I went in to how bad he was. And we went all that, and he said ‘No.’ He said, ‘It’s just going to be you and God.’ And he said, ‘Can I tell you a story? And I said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘You may think different about this because what you’re saying here is you should’ve earned your way to heaven, right?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah.’ And he said, ‘Well, do you have peace?” And I said, ‘Now, that’s what’s wrong. There’s something wrong there because I don’t have that peace. And I know it’s in the Bible. And I know it’s about it, so something’s missing.’ And that is when I came to Christ. And – but the best thing he told me – and people should know this every time – your circumstances won’t be different. When I came home, he was still drinking and calling me names.”

Kay emphasized that people shouldn’t expect to not have marriage problems after coming to Jesus, but it does give them an unshakeable foundation.

Kelsey Straeter
Kelsey Straeter
Kelsey is an editor at Outreach. She’s passionate about fear fighting, freedom writing, and the pursuit of excellence in the name of crucifying perfectionism. Glitter is her favorite color, 2nd only to pink, and 3rd only to pink glitter.

Kevin Bacon Surprises Students at High School Where ‘Footloose’ Was Filmed — Announces He’s Visiting Them for Prom

After some very serious lobbying from students at Payson High School in Payson, Utah, where “Footloose” was filmed, Kevin Bacon announced Friday that he would be returning to the high school for this year’s senior prom. 

“My Last Thought Was a Desperate Plea to God, ‘Lord, Give Me the Strength to Die Well’”: Mom With ‘Invisible Illness’ Shares Her Harrowing...

"'Help me to not look like I am suffocating,' I prayed. 'Lord, please protect my son’s heart from this.’ And I faded away."

“My Husband Turned Blue to Gray”: Wife In Shock Over the One Drink That Killed Her Husband

"The doctor's exact words were 'People drinking these drinks are playing Russian Roulette with their lives.' I was blown away and couldn’t believe just one drink could do this damage"... And KIDS can buy these anywhere.