Letter to a friend

In a letter to a friend one finds simple pleasures, comfort and an open and honest heart. I write to that friend in each of our hearts today. We are each writing our own story. Each story will be different; each life shaped by the Hands of God. As we seek Him to mold our lives, our stories and our families we pluck the sweet fruits that only the love of God bares. This is the story of how Heavenly Father reached into my life, touched my heart and led me to where He needs me to be today and is molding me into the woman He knows I am.

My story starts when I was eleven years old and a seed was planted deep in my heart. It was my first experience with home school. It was a seed that not only changed who I was then, but has brought me to a deeper knowledge of who I am now.  

It was during this first experience with home school that I learned what it was to be taught by the spirit. As I listened to my teachers fill my heart with stories about our founding fathers, as I studied from the scriptures and learned the voice of the spirit, I fell in love with spirit-led learning. For me, it guided me through some challenging secular classes later on that belittled my faith and the faith of my fathers.

Written on my Heart

There are phrases that have been written on my heart that have guided me during this last year as I searched and prayed to be led to the best way to teach my children and raise them to know their Savior and their loving Father in Heaven. I would like to say that these phrases were spoken gently to my heart and mind as I've gone through this process, but they weren't spoken gently. They spoke so forcefully to my soul that I could not argue with the direction I was being given. In the beginning, one such phrase was simple, "Love is spelled T-I-M-E" (Uchtdorf). My relationship with my oldest was suffering because of a simple lack of time as she attended kindergarten and lost her attachment to our family.

Recently, there is a new phrase. It comes from me as a child, as a youth and has always been the desire of my heart. Simply, "I want to stay home so that I can raise my children." I cannot tell you how many times I was told that was selfish of me and not feasible in the future, but I clung to it. It was all my growing heart wanted. For me, I have realized this year that my desire is being granted by a loving Father in Heaven that has communicated with me that home school is what is right for my family. It's what He needs our family to do. It's allowing me to be their prime teacher. A place that, as a mother, is rightfully mine. Given by a loving Father in Heaven as He sent these children here, to me, to my heart, to my home, for my husband and I to nurture and protect.