This is the last paragraph of my latest email from my 19 yo daughter.
She is currently serving an LDS mission in Missouri, and was HS'ed using
the TJED principles. I am going to share the letter, and then analyze
it a little for you.
Dad & Mom,
I want to thank you
for my life. Being out here in MO, I have noticed how much the youth
struggle in staying close to the Lord while there is such evil all
around them. One of the sisters talked about her daughter and how when
she came home from school, she ran to
her room to read the BoM before anything else and then after dinner and
before school everyday. She told her mom that it was her way of
cleansing her self from the outside world and from school. I am so
grateful for both of you that are so in tune with the spirit and kept me
out of things. Thank you for working on creating zion in our home.
Thank you for helping me to know my Savior, His Atonement, and to always
turn to Him for anything and everything. I have been so blessed. The
way I was raised has been helping me a ton out here. I am not shocked by
the world. It is really hard to explain.
My husband and were discussing this...what were the things that made this work?
First, our family is so NOT perfect. We fight and yell, and get in bad
moods, but we consistently prayed together, and tried to discuss the
principles that we thought were important. She had a lot of freedom to
follow her own interests, and among other amazing talents that she
developed, she read. A lot. Tolkien, Tolstoy, Hugo, Porter, Austin,
Homer, Card and on and on.....and what I think all that literature did
for her was, mature her beyond her years to understand all the evil that
is in the world, the ugly consequences that poor choices bring, and the
beautiful redemptive quality of Grace. So was she sheltered?
Physically, yes. Emotionally? No way. She has lived with the greatest
lives ever lived. And so she, my friends, is ready to conquer the
world.
Thank you Demilles, for sacrificing an easy life for
the "called" life. Because of the gift of your research and
understanding written in to books, I have just reaped the most priceless
gift of parenting.
7 years ago
