Karen Pence Opens Up About Her Marriage – God Comes First, Mike Second

WASHINGTON – In her first sit-down interview as second lady, Karen Pence told CBN's Jenna Browder about the role of faith in her marriage to Vice President Mike Pence.

The Pences' relationship has been in the headlines in recent weeks following a Washington Post article that mentioned the vice president's personal policy to not dine alone with any woman other than his wife.

Faith has always been a big part of their relationship and in Tuesday's interview, the second lady shared a story about a time when the couple was just dating and had a conversation about the way they see God and each other. Watch above.

Karen Pence's Passion for Healing: Why She Says Art Is the Answer

While Pence puts God and family first, she also has a passion for healing those who are hurting. That's why she believes strongly in art therapy and has chosen it as one of her main initiatives.

Pence was an art teacher for 25 years and learned about art healing when she became first lady of Indiana. She saw firsthand the difference it made in the lives of people and became a major advocate for it, lending her support to programs across the state.

“What we’ve found is art therapy can be used for anyone who’s experiencing trauma,” Pence said, noting her involvement with children battling deadly illnesses like cancer.

“But it’s also something that can be used and very effectively with wounded warriors who are going through PTSD,” she added. “It’s very effective with people who have eating disorders. It can be used for grief counseling.”

Now, as second lady of the U.S., she hopes to promote art therapy on a national scale. 

In the clip below, she explains what art therapy is and how she wants to make a difference through it.

Karen Pence's Secret Advice to Her Kids  

In the interview Pence went on to share how she and her husband make their marriage and family work.
 
The second lady was wearing a bracelet her son gave her and shared the story behind it. The silver piece of jewelry has a special engraving on the backside – something she says she tells her kids when the outside world seems to be spinning out of control.

"This is a bracelet my son gave me," Pence said. "He engraved it. It says, 'Mama Platoon Sergeant,' but on the other side he put his favorite quote, his favorite mom quote and it is, 'I'm not going to let what's going on out there affect what's going on in here.'"

"And you know we've lead a very public life and we're private people, but there's a way to balance that with your family and what we've done is we just always in this political (environment) is just try to make our kids part of the fun things with dad," she explained.

"You know, if you want to travel with dad back to Indiana this week, or if you want to go to this speech or you want to vote for him, kids could go on the floor of Congress and actually cast the vote for the member - those kinds of things," Pence continued. "We wanted them to be involved."

"But it also was important to sometimes just say, 'You know what? I could have had dinner with the president today but I decided... I'm going to be with Charlotte. It's her first violin recital and that's important to her,'" she said.

Pence noted, "I can't always not go have dinner with the president for Charlotte, but there are times when you just have to let your family know, you're my priority."

"And I think for anybody with family these days it's very difficult to keep that balance and just kind of setting those perimeters and saying, 'Ok, it's time that you do something with Michael, or it's time you do something with Audrey. They've been missing you.' That kind of thing. That's what we do," she said.