Alexa PenaVega: ‘God Pulled Me Out of [Hollywood] So I Could Be An Awesome Mom And Wife’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Alexa PenaVega is revealing the reason why she decided to leave Hollywood behind and move her family with husband Carlos PenaVega to Hawaii in the couple’s joint memoir “What if Love is the Point? Living for Jesus in a Self-Consumed World.”
In an interview with Fox News, Alexa shared how the couple fell in love.
“I had come right out of divorce and felt that I needed to realign my life,” she explained. “I wanted a deeper relationship with my faith. I wanted a relationship with God. I wanted to attend bible study and just dive into my faith. I wasn’t looking for any kind of relationship other than the relationship I had with my faith.
“I showed up to bible study and I met Carlos,” Alexa continued. “I just wanted to be friends… I didn’t want anybody in the entertainment industry. No actors, no singers… He was everything on my no list. And everything on my no list was everything I never knew I needed. It was the person who could help fill in all the gaps that I was missing in my life. That was Carlos.”
The couple got married in 2014 and share three children — Ocean, 5, Kingston, 3, and Rio, 1.
The PenaVegas are both actors and couldn’t imagine leaving Hollywood. However, they soon realized they needed a change.
“Carlos was really struggling with the industry,” Alexa explained. “Every audition he went on, it would get down between him and one other guy and the other guy would always get it. The rejection was just becoming too much for him. This went on for a full year. At the time, I was pregnant. We’d always talked about moving to Hawaii, but later on in life, like a retirement plan. But we also knew that we didn’t want to raise our kids in Los Angeles.
“I felt this tug in my heart. I felt it was God going, ‘You guys need to get out of here. It’s time.’ I didn’t want to move. I knew it was the right decision, but it wasn’t something that I was so excited about.”
She continued, “You would think Hawaii is so exciting. But I loved LA. I loved my career and I didn’t want to go. At the time, I felt like we were moving for Carlos. But one day I was praying in my car and I suddenly had this revelation. I felt like God was preparing us for this move. And we weren’t moving for Carlos. We were moving for my heart. It stopped me in my tracks because all that time, I thought we were just moving for Carlos. But I needed a heart reset. I was the one trapped in the entertainment world and needed to take a step back. My job became my identity. God pulled me out of that so I could learn how to be an awesome mom and an awesome wife. God helped us build that foundation in our family. And once I had that revelation, I felt at peace.”
In their new book, the couple detail their struggles and triumphs in an effort to encourage other young couples to get married.
“We were just so excited about marriage and the idea of possibly sharing our testimony with others,” the actress shared. “It felt like everything out in the media depicted marriage as lame. It took the holiness out of marriage. We felt like marriage was this dying thing, and we wanted to reignite it for people and get them excited about it again.”
She continued, “We didn’t want to force the idea of a book. So we first started with this one sheet called ‘What is the Point?’ We would include all the testimonies that happened in our lives – our failures, successes, arguments, anything that made us go, ‘God, why are you doing this? What’s the point of this happening in our lives right now?’ We felt that if the timing was ever right, God would open the door. Years later, we eventually got the call about writing a book. It was exactly what we planned all along.”
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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