God's Peace

With the summer approaching, I've been considering more and more what I'll be doing with my son E to help him with his studies. He continues having a hard time in school due to his dyslexia and the fact that the school has no program for this type of learning disability, so it's up to me to help my son any way I can.

I began by looking at what dyslexia is and how dyslexic children learn. Because dyslexics are visual learners, computer curriculums are recommended and work better than standard reading books and workbooks. I was surprised at how many different homeschooling curriculums are out there! The positive is that there's something for everyone and plenty to choose from. The negative is that these curriculums can be quite expensive. I mean running into the hundreds, especially for curriculums targeted at special needs. Since I'm not working, this was not an option. I continued looking at information and seeing what was available.

Last year I'd bought workbooks at Costco which were extremely helpful to my son during the summer months. He would do several pages a day, one for reading/science, two for language arts and two for math. I made sure it wasn't too much so he wouldn't get overwhelmed, since I was still working at the time and he was doing his work on his own or with his sister's help. Still, by the time school started his reading and language arts grades had gone up to a B. Much better than the D's he'd received at the end of the school year. So I decided to look for some more workbooks and be prepared for this summer as well.

As I went through the selection of material available, I found that Costco had a computer home learning "suite". A four CD collection that included reading, math, science, social studies, language arts, one CD just for spelling (which my son desperately needs help in), and another CD just for foreign languages. What a great find! The price for the collection was $54.99, which I fully knew was an excellent bargain compared to the prices of other computer curriculum I'd seen, even though for us it was still quite a bit of money. When I picked up the CD's, I realized I was missing something. I didn't have peace about it. As a Christian I've come to understand that when God approves of a decision or path I'm taking, He fills me with His peace, and I know that's what He wants me to do. It's very comforting to know my Heavenly Father is giving me the thumbs-up. I couldn't understand, though, why I wasn't feeling that with this curriculum. Everything seemed to indicate that this was a great deal, and I'd felt God leading me to homeschool my son this summer. I even considered calling my husband and asking him if it were okay to purchase the CD's for E. I know him well enough that if I explained these CD's would help E with his schoolwork and grades my hubby would say to go ahead and buy them and not worry about the price. But I still wouldn't have God's peace about it. And that to me was more important than anyone else's approval. I stood there looking over the CD's for a while longer, hoping it would begin to feel right, but it didn't. Eventually I put them down and continued with my shopping.

That was about two months ago. This week, for some strange reason, I felt like God wanted me to go back to Costco and buy the curriculum. Once again, I couldn't understand why God would tell me now that it was okay to purchase something He wouldn't give me peace about before. I began to wonder if it was really God telling me to buy the curriculum, or if it was just me. After all, $54.99 wasn't in this week's budget. I had to do my big grocery shopping for the month, and adding on this additional $55.00 didn't seem like a good move. I had to go to Costco anyway, so I figured I'd see how much I was spending and if I had enough in the budget to pay for it then I'd know it was God's will, otherwise it was mine. I swung by the book area to see if the curriculum was still available. To my absolute shock, the curriculum was still there, but a large sign above it offered an instant manufacturer's rebate of $35.00. The curriculum was now selling for $19.99! I couldn't believe my eyes. I knew immediately this was God's provision for my son at a price that definitely fit in our budget! Now I understood why God wouldn't give me peace about buying the curriculum two months ago. He knew that waiting would be to my family's advantage, and by listening to Him I was able to make the right decision.

Having a relationship with God means allowing Him to lead us, protect us from doing the wrong thing and guide us to what is right. It might seem scary to let someone else take control of our life to that extent, but I know my Heavenly Father wants only what's best for me. Who better to sit in the driver's seat?