Danny and Leyicet Gokey Celebrate Their Children: ‘Awesome Dynamic’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Christian artist Danny Gokey and wife Leyicet recently shared the challenges and blessings of raising kids and how they balance career and family.
“I was not a kid person per se growing up. You wouldn’t see me, you know, carrying everyone’s kid,” Leyicet admitted in an interview on the SHAWN BOLZ SHOW.
Even though she knew she wanted children, the maternal instinct didn’t “kick in” until she became pregnant with their first child.
“It really changed because any selfishness that’s in you has to go, but it’s just fun,” the mother of four said. “[What] I always tell people is you think your capacity is here. But when you have kids, you realize your capacity is way higher. Because when all chaos is breaking loose, something bigger happens. You’re like, ‘Oh, I thought I couldn’t take any more, but I could.’”
“Our kids add such an awesome dynamic to our lives,” Danny said, who often brings his young children on tour with him.
But being a famous singer on the road doesn’t exclude him from even the messiest of parental duties, as the AMERICAN IDOL finalist recounts an experience after a performance.
“I get off the stage. The crowd still clapping. My wife, I think she’s ready to compliment me like, ‘Wow, what a great show!’ You know what she does?” Gokey joked. “She asks, ‘Are you done?’ She hands me the baby. ‘Here. Victoria needs a diaper change.’”
“Whether it’s juggling kids back (or on) stage, or coordinating carpools, we make it work! No matter what it looks like, I just love getting to be together,” Danny posted on Instagram, along with a video of him performing while holding his daughter.
The Gokeys believe in maintaining a level of normalcy despite being in the limelight and that humility is important, a value they want to instill in their children.
“It’s really important to us to, I think, raise our kids the way we were raised, and that is super down to earth and humbly,” Leyicet said.
She also shared her concern over what she called the “villainization” of having children in the current culture.
“I see these celebrities … [saying], ‘Because I chose to not have children or get an abortion or do this and that therefore I have this award or this accolade,’ and I just want to say that I have not stopped having goals of my own just because I had kids,” Leyicet said. “It opened more doors to me, and it actually gave life more meaning.”
She went on to speak of the need to support young and single mothers who choose life for their babies.
“Life is always to be celebrated. And we should honor that, and we should never look down on them,” Leyicet told Bolz. “We’ve all made bad choices. If they’re choosing life and not to abort and to have children, let’s come around them and help them and celebrate them.
As much as the Gokeys focus on and celebrate their children, the couple also stressed the importance of taking time for each other, even if it’s a date night at home, although Danny says that he still believes in dressing up as if they were going out.
“You know you’re dating, and you’re meeting up at a restaurant, and you’re not meeting up like just coming out of the gym. I really believe in that. What made you fall in love in the first place? Go back to that,” Gokey explained on Joy FM. “What did Jesus say? ‘Do the first things you did.’ He said, ‘You lost your first love. Go back and do the first things.’ What were the first things when we fell in love with Jesus? Same thing should be one of the first things when we fell in love with our wife.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Gokey’s pro-life stance:
Christian singer Danny Gokey said that while he preaches an adamant pro-life message, he also wants to encourage post-abortive women that there is hope.
“I am pro-baby and pro-mama, 100% of the way,” Gokey said in a video published by Live Action. “If you’re watching this and you’ve had an abortion, know this: that you are loved, you are accepted and you have a place at the table — and Jesus’ blood can wash away that wound and scar.”
In the video, Gokey notes that 2,363 babies are aborted each day in America, amounting to 860,000 per year.
“I believe that, with God’s help, that we can fight for life, and fight for freedom for these babies,” Gokey said.
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