Joyful Saint

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.