My husband and I discussed homeschooling on our second date. I am not kidding! It was something we discovered was important to both of us so that was our plan from the beginning. When our oldest was finally "ready" to begin school I was an eager beaver, full of excitement, ideas, and expectations. I quickly hit a brick wall.....full force. It hurt. I cried. She cried. I got frustrated. She got frustrated. I got mad. She got mad. This cycle continued for far longer than I want to admit. Eventually she was diagnosed with dyslexia but by that time we were both at the breaking point. We had run into that brick wall so many times we were both bloody and bruised.

She was a very intelligent child and had many convincing arguments for how she would manage in life without being able to read. I was at the point of agreeing with her plan! But I KNEW she needed to learn to read. What should I do? I decided to ask her to go talk to God. I suggested she spend some time in prayer and ask God if she needed to learn to read. If He said no, we would quit. My daughter plodded off to her room......and I waited. Of course, I knew what He would say but I would be lying if I didn't offer up my own prayer that He would just let us off the hook. And I wondered if she would truly hear from Him. This was something we had taught our kids from a young age, but it had never been put to the test like this before.

A little while later she returned in tears. Through sobs she said, "God told me I have to learn how to read." She knew. God had spoken. I was so proud of her at that moment. I gave her a hug and then said, "Ok, so now I need you to go ask God what strategy we need to use to conquer this skill." I reminded her of the three different curricula we had purchased and tried, another one I had researched and was willing to buy, and acknowledged that God may have a plan outside of these resources I was familiar with. She plodded back to her room to continue her discussion with God. It was not long before she was back and said God wanted us to try the new curriculum I had been researching. So I did. And to my amazement she dug into that book with me and never again argued that she didn't need to learn to read. It took a few more years but my daughter eventually learned to read. She worked hard. We both did. She knew she could because God had spoken. That day in her room was a turning point for her because she heard the voice of her Heavenly Father and she obeyed.