Meet Jason Logan

We recently connected with Jason Logan and have shared our conversation below.

Jason, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

When i grew up I saw my parents come through very difficult situations many times. It instilled in me that no matter what my circumstances where I could choose a good path from it. I did not have to be a victim of chance or other people’s choices that affected me in a seemingly negative way. I still had my choice to make my life what I wanted it to be. My parents overcame, prevailed against overwhelming odds, never gave up, and showed me how to preserver!
Life can be relentlessly challenging at times, unpredictable and scary, but i learned that the challenges you face are temporary, and rarely fatal. God has a plan for you to grow, and for your potential to come forth. You never know what is inside you until your faced with something that seems impossible to go through. Face it, keep going, never, never, never give up! One day, you will find yourself on the other side of it, you won’t be the same person, you’ll be better!!

My family is so blessed because of the choices my parents made and the perseverance they showed in challenging times! Thanks mom and dad for your example and hard work……I’m eternally grateful for the character you have merited to me through your ability to overcome adversity. thank you for never giving up!!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am a husband and a father of 12 children. I am a business owner currently in the custom home building industry. I live on a small farm and raise Angus beef cattle, garden, and raise hay. I enjoy the outdoors, hunting, fishing, camping and spending priceless moments with my family. I have a strong faith in God and have been a mentor for men and families through the years.
My wife and I have home educated our 12 children, four of whom are married now, and we have 6 grandchildren so far.

Something very special about my story is that my first marriage in 1994 produced 10 children, 5 boys and 5 girls. After 17 years of marriage my wife found out she had cancer right before we had our 10th child. Prior to the birth we had planned to have our 10th home birth, but after going 2 weeks past the due date we went in for an exam. The Doctor told us we would not be able to birth at home and that we need to schedule an emergency cesarean delivery. We had a baby girl but then learned that my wife had cervical cancer. My wife chose and alternative path and after a year and a half the cancer took her life, leaving me single with 10 children. I was devastated!

Feeling like my life was out of control, feeling like this was happening to me and I couldn’t get out of this horrible dream, I was in a daze! I knew God was real, that somehow, he had a plan for me, but my circumstances seemed impossible. How was i going to raise 10 children by myself? How was I going to continue to educate them at home? How would they go on without their mother? How would I get married again, who would take me with my 10 children……IMPOSSIBLE!!

Somehow, I knew that God would make a way where there seemed to be no way!! I did not know how, but i had seen God come through in my life before, but this was much more unbelievable!

I started to do some grief counseling, working through the loss of my wife and rebuilding my life and family again. I also had a highly qualified private school teacher volunteer to educate my children for a season. Life was moving, but i was feeling very challenged to find meaning and motivation to go forward with it. I had a huge void in my life without a mother and wife in the home. even though the children and i had each other we all had a great pain and void. Our community was a huge help, bringing meals, watching the children while i worked, supporting us in various ways, but i knew that this was not the long-term solution for our family. I wondered, what did God have planned for us????

Well, God did have a plan. it was only a short while, when a young lady, the same age as my late wife, had my attention. I knew of her because my oldest daughter had a dance class with this woman. I had met her and i knew that she was not married. I started to pray about her, and in my journal entries i would record my thoughts about her. A few months went by and my prayer to God was that he would protect her, and show me if this was from him. I started sharing with my parents, my pastor, and some close friends about what i felt God was showing me about this woman (her name was Stephanie)

I continued to journal about her, until one day my journal entries turned more into letter’s to her. This went on for a few months. The feedback from my parent’s, friends, and pastor was all green lights to move forward, and at this point I had not made any advancement toward her. This was where it became scarry for me, how do I approach her, what do i say to her, she knows our family, but she is from California, I’m a country boy, I have 10 children, she has never been married, all the questions bean to race through my mind. BUT, in my mind and heart i was feeling like God was putting this all together somehow??? Now there is definitely ALOT between the lines here………

I finally had a meeting with my children to share with them what i felt God has been showing me, i was very transparent with them. After the conversation i shared with them who it was, somehow all the older children already knew and after some discussion and asking their permission they gave me a green light that they were on board. I was astonished, how was this all coming together, it seemed surreal! At this point it had only been about 11 months since my wife had passed, and now there was a potential person that i could move forward with?? I was really scared now!!

My thoughts were, how am i going to do this? how do i protect my children, how do i protect Stephanie, what if this is just my imagination? I did not know if i could do this, i hadn’t dated anyone, i don’t want to mess around, i don’t need a broken heart or any more pain for my family. But, if this is real, how can i not try, how can i not give it a chance, what if it is God doing this and I just walk away from what he wants to do for my family, and for Stephanie. I can’t take the choice for her away either. I have to at least tell her so she can decide for herself. This all seemed so crazy!

Well, I finally worked up enough nerve to ask her to diner. I made a reservation at the nicest restaurant in town. I had 5 white roses and 49 white, and 1 blue balloon delivered to the restaurant. We met at the restaurant; we walked in, and they sat us at the table that was prepared. She was stunned and speechless! We sat down, I made some small talk, but then quickly steered that conversation to why i had invited her to diner. I explained the meaning behind the roses and ballons (they had great significance), she listened as i explained what my last year has looked like. I shared with her that I felt God had highlighted her to me several months ago and that i had been praying about her and for her. I let her know that i believed that She was the one i was to marry, and to be the mother to my children. She had some questions, but then she began to share her side of the story for the last year. She said that when she found out about my wife passing, that God showed her that she was going to be the “one”, That she has been trying to dodge it but that she just knew that this was coming! She knew that as scary as this was for her, that she felt like this was a train that was coming, and she needed to decide if she was going to get on it or let it pass by indefinitely. I asked her how she felt and what she had decided, that i wanted to know? We looked at each other, we both knew the answer!

I shared with her that i was not interested in messing around, nothing physical at all, we needed to get to know each other, but that this was only to go forward with a commitment toward marriage. I wanted to start some counseling together and let her and the children have time together in a family context. Stephanie was agreeable and we talked freely for the rest of our meal. It was delightful, very comfortable and warm, just knowing the expectations and the boundaries was so liberating for us both, and later she shared that she felt protected and honored to have them stated so early, that had never happened in the past!

This began our relationship together, full transparency about our past laid a very solid foundation for us for trust and respect and honor. We had very strict boundaries, we didn’t even hold hands and only had a few side hugs, but this built a very strong bond between us that was not about the physical aspects of relationship. This allowed us to really connect emotionally, mentally, and on spiritual matters especially, we look back now and are so grateful we had this foundation for our relationship!
In four short months we had a betrothal ceremony with our immediate family, after a nice dinner at her parents’ house that night we chose to not see each other for the seven weeks we planned our wedding ceremony. June 1, 2013, we had a large outdoor wedding with 350 guests. My children were the wedding party and as i stood under the chuppah i saw Stephanie for the first time in seven weeks…….I was stunned!!! She was breathtakingly beautiful as she walked down the aisle to be given to me by her father. As we performed the ceremony i could hardly believe it was happening, only 16 months prior i had lost my first wife (God rest her soul) and I was being joined to my new bride with my ten children participating in the ceremony, Gods ways are not our ways!!!! THEY ARE BETTER!!

Stephanie and I had our first kiss under that chuppah, in front of a bewildered group of friends and family that had stood by our side through some of the most challenging times of my life. To share such a special moment in a God given covenant setting is one of the most special moments of my life, hands down! To go from such a despairing place to such and elevated moment in such a short time is nothing short of a miracle from God. Stephanie and I are so happily in love, after twelve years now and two children of our own together, I never would have believed my life could be so full and enriched. The Life we have is very blessed, we face our challenges together, with God, and he always brings forth the best when we trust in him. I wrote this in my journal shortly after Stephanie and I got together, “the greatest achievements in life are born out of the impossible”. I will say, being a single dad with 10 children seemed impossible for sure!! I never thought that such a situation could turn around so quickly and have such a powerful life changing effect for so many people. Even our friends and family know that God has provided Stephanie for our family. We know that God had a plan to put our lives together for a greater purpose and we chose into that plan in complete faith, and we had plenty of fears to face to get there!!!

I Pray that God is glorified through our story, that others will be inspired to face tough circumstances with great hope and faith, knowing that even though the storms of life may come, that sunshine shall follow. God can do great things out of the ashes and disappointments, the failures and the flaws of our life. Do not ever, ever, give up!!! Hang on until you get your dream and blessing! Gods greatness dwells in you, and the refiner’s fires on only bring forth the pure gold!

To my wife Stephanie I say, thank you for going to dinner with me that 26th of January!! You are the craziest, bravest, strongest, most faithful person. I love you with all my heart, thank you for saying YES to this freight train coming and for making the leap to ride it till glory! To my children, you have inspired the changes in my life more than you know! I am the proudest dad; you all are amazing individuals and your potential is unlimited! I am forever grateful for your patience with me as i grow and learn to be the best me i can be! To my first 10 i say, your mother looks down with such pride, the way you honor her memory is such a testament to her life of commitment to you while she was here, GOD REST HER SOUL! To my parents, you have led such an example for me to follow, such a legacy for our family to hold up in high esteem. Thank you for all your prayers and support, i could not have done anything worthwhile without your love and mentoring and late nights, you deserve all honor!
TO MY GOD, you have never left me or forsaken me! I do not always understand the path you have led me down, but you have always had the best for me! I cannot bless you enough, your so patient and faithful to me, thank you for never giving up on me!!!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I would say that Awareness of God fell on me very early in life. I came from a family of bible teachers, evangelist, missionaries, etc. I feel like this was imprinted to me early, the idea that God is real and is part of the story of my life. It did not keep life challenges from happening but gave me purpose and meaning through them. There is a saying “no pain, No GAIN”…. there is a lot of truth to that. Forgiveness was huge in my family, (that’s a lot of other stories too) but if you don’t go victim, you can have victory!

Resilience, patience, hope, courage, these qualities move you past your present to your future, nothing worth having comes without some kind of investment, sacrifice. Our microwave culture is doing us a disservice, it takes time to build character, meaning, value, relationships. There is time and investment to anything that will last, and it will have its own seasons of testing those attributes. What stands the tests of time shall remain, it is what will sustain and pass down for generation! It is merit for those who come before and behind you, it leaves a legacy, a heritage, and an inheritance! You have to open your hand and release the temporal to receive the eternal…….

Don’t lose hope! Reach deep, all you have for success is already inside you, its written on you heart and mind, God is in you, acknowledge him in all you do, and he will direct you path! There is so much good and blessing in store for you if you will overcome!

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

My parents have probably been the most influential in my life. They gave me such a great foundation and support through the years, and they have really been a great example of timeless perserverane and courage to face the impossible! In addition, God was always a large focus for our family, the bible was studied and read. It had relevance, there are so many great principles for living life, meeting challenges, seeing the best in others, forgiveness, giving, marrying well. If fact, my wife today, is a God send. Marrying someone is one of the most important decisions you will make in life. You must share the same values, be able to communicate, have honest conversations, have accountability, and engage in something together that is bigger that the two of you, (its generational). These are how you have an abundant, enriched and purposeful life.
This is true wealth, true peace, and true meaning in all you do.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
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  Family Life Outfitters
  Jason Logan
  970-759-3882