This Thanksgiving, I am so very thankful to be a missionary mama.
Many of my son’s friends are in their second year of college and I’ve seen fun posts about fraternity inductions. I am thrilled my son has been inducted into the fraternity of missionary work. Our missionary has formed life-long friendships as he has struggled and sacrificed side-by-side with some of the most incredible people he’s ever met!
I’ve also spoken to heart-broken parents about sons that have dropped out of college, fallen into addictions, and lost their way. These young men are so very young and they are searching for a purpose to their lives. I am so grateful for the Lord’s wisdom in having our young people serve missions, giving them that purpose of serving mankind at large. What a wonderful, wonderful vision for our young men and women to pursue!
I am grateful for the severing of contact with parents, allowing our son to truly step up as a man and see for himself that he can do hard things. He is capable of handling difficult situations and solving his own problems without Mummy and Daddy stepping in to sort everything out.
I am grateful that he cannot date for two years, giving him the opportunity to learn to see the women around him, not as potential dates, but as partners in the work of the Lord. Dating is fun and he will definitely jump into dating once his mission is finished, but, for now, this is a good break.
I am so very grateful that he is cut off from the world’s influencers as I watch government officials in America fall deeper and deeper into the mire of sin and disgusting filth. Then they try to ignore or justify their appalling behavior. It is far better for our son to be mentored by a righteous priesthood holder—he LOVES his mission president! He has even taken to wearing brightly hued socks because his mission president does. Hero worship is a great mentoring tool, provided you have a great mentor!
Gratitude doesn’t begin to describe the joy I feel that my precious son has come to know that he is a precious son to his Father in Heaven. He has been the answer to so many people’s prayers. This has taught him the Heavenly Father does hear our prayers, every single one of them. The Lord does answer our sincere searching for answers.
To read more of Emlee Taylor’s Missionary Mom moments, click here.
Because my son has been the instrument to answer someone’s prayers, he knows that the Lord uses imperfect us to answer each other’s prayers. This has made me realize that I need to constantly be listening to the spirit in my own life, so I can be that answer to someone’s prayer as I go about my day.
This season of giving thanks, I am so very, very grateful to Heavenly Father for the inspired missionary program. It is making a man of God out of my son and is helping our family to be closer to God.
Growing up all over the world gave Emlee Taylor an opportunity to see the incredible differences the Lord created in humanity; and even better, the passions we all share as members of the human race: love for family, faith, & a desire to make a difference.
Emlee lives life with passion—focusing her time now on raising four children and teaching them to recognize truth and to live true to that truth, regardless of others’ expectations. Emlee is passionately in love with her bestest friend and husband of more than 20 years.
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