It was September of 2022 when the wheels, I think officially, came off the wagon of our marriage. We had hit complete rock-bottom. We were both engulfed in sins of anger, pride, and control. I am not sure that either of us really saw a path forward to make our marriage work after seeing the dark turns our lives had taken. A marriage built by two sinners who weren't sure what "normal" was when it came to a healthy marriage. We were flying pretty blind.

I, Whitney, received a phone call from a longtime friend of Dusty's family who had heard we were not well. She's a pastor's wife whose marriage had looked like ours at one point. She had seen what it looked like to make it to the other side of fording the river of a failing marriage. And since I was doing more drowning than fording, I listened to the words she had for me. "Choose Your Hard" she told me as I sat in my classroom after school one day. "You can choose the hard of seeing your kids every other Thanksgiving, every other Christmas Day, every other birthday, and every other weekend. Or you can choose the hard of laying down your weapons with your husband, digging your heels into the ground, and allowing God to make changes in you that are needed to heal your marriage. Either way, it will be hard. Choose your hard". 

She gave Dusty the same words and that same Fall, we "chose our hard"--each other. 

Hope, the family friend, also told us that she was paying for us to go to an extensive weekend away to a retreat to deal with some heart issues. She, respectfully, didn't give either of us much of a choice in going. She basically just told us to figure out who was going first. We obliged. We went to the retreat individually and the Holy Spirit did in a weekend what thousands of dollars and dozens of hours of regular counseling could not do. 

 To this day, I am thankful I didn't get what I wanted. Most anyone looking at our situation and the mountain we were facing would have understood if we had called it quits. Our inner circle probably expected it. They'd seen the worst of it.

But God...

Matthew 7:13-14 tells us to 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Dusty and I decided in the Fall of 2022 to choose the road less traveled. The narrow gate. The one that led us to life. A life with our hearts stayed on Him and each other. A life where are children are more joyful and peaceful than I have ever seen them. A marriage that is infinitely better than I ever dreamed was possible for us. 

God built our faith in Him during that time and through that, I learned that he was a safe bet. A safe yes. In July of 2023, the Holy Spirit started pressing on my heart that it was time to homeschool our kids. It had always been a dream of mine, but I am about as risk averse as one can be. No job, no paycheck, no community for me and my kids? Terrifying. 

Faith is a funny thing though. It requires us to act as though we believe what God is saying is true. He had already shown me what he was capable of handling when he took my dead marriage and resurrected it. So when he assured me it was ok to step away from my career, my paycheck, my community in order to homeschool, I had to take Him at His word and give Him a chance to show off His provisions for me. 

And this leads us to where we are today--The Road Less Traveled Homeschool. 

Join us on our journey. This is not a travel blog but rather a set of stories that narrate our lives as we navigate the road less traveled as the Johnson Family.