Trust God with Everything and the Extra Challenges, Too
E/4:29 Parent-to-Parent
Parenting a Child with Learning Differences
My husband was sitting in a chair next to me across the desk from the Developmental Pediatrician who gave us the verdict from the testing he had done with our daughter several weeks prior. The doctor gently handed me a box of tissues as I tried to take in what I had just heard—he had diagnosed our third-grade daughter with a language learning difference (LD) and ADHD. I had known she was struggling in school, and suspected that one of these two things was the culprit, but BOTH? It was a lot to take in. What would this mean for the future? Was there a way to “fix” the learning disability? What should we do with this information?
Raising children is a journey for all parents whether there are learning differences involved or not. Thankfully, as Christian parents we had God leading the way on our journey, but often I didn’t do a good job of trusting Him. I still struggled with worrying about how she would do on the next test and worrying about what the long-term looked like: How would she make it through high school when middle school was so hard? Would she be able to go to college? Would she always live with us?
Ephesians 2:10 became my favorite verse. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (NIV). It gave me great comfort to remember that God had made her the way she is and that even with learning differences He still has good works for her to do! I prayed this verse for her and asked God to show me, as the mother He had chosen for her, how to help her be prepared for the good works He had for her. There were so many possible therapy programs to choose so I needed wisdom and discernment to know what the best ones would be to enroll her in as I researched them and reported back to my husband.
Eventually we chose to transfer her to a school especially for students with learning differences where she finished middle school and high school. When she was a junior in high school, she came home one day in January and told me there had been a panel of recent graduates who had come and talked to them about what it is like to be a college student with LDs. I asked what colleges were represented. I can’t remember any of the colleges she mentioned except Liberty! When I heard that, bells went off in my head immediately. I knew of Liberty University, and loved that it was a Christian school and BIG because our daughter wanted to go to a BIG school (as in, BIG athletics). If another student from her high school was having success there then maybe it would work for us too!
As we started researching Liberty, I was immediately taken with their tag line: Training Champions for Christ! That reminded me of my prayers based on Ephesians 2:10. Maybe this University would have a heart for helping our girl, with her learning challenges, be a champion for Christ too! We visited the campus as part of a family trip the summer before her senior year of high school and attended a CFAW during the fall of her senior year. She applied and was accepted. She was also accepted at a small Christian university in our home state, as well as a big public university which has one of the best programs for students with LDs in the country. The three of us tried to look at every angle as we prayed for God’s will to be clear to us. In the end, of course, we chose Liberty.
That is not the end of the journey, and what we have learned as parents of an LU student with LDs will be shared next month in part two, “The Nuts and Bolts of Having a Student with LDs.” Kris C., Junior
Blessings to all who hear.
E/4:29’s contributing authors are parents of students who are currently enrolled in undergraduate degree programs or have recently graduated and are continuing their higher education in a graduate degree program at Liberty. Each month, the Parent-to-Parent blog offers practical tips, helpful guidance, and encouraging wisdom that they may serve you “only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (as in, Ephesians 4:29).
We invite you to write with us! If you are interested in sharing your insights and tips with fellow parents, email your name and student’s ID to LUFamily@liberty.edu today!