This Changes Everything

Today, in the first session of the LDS Church’s Semiannual General Conference, President Thomas S. Monson announced that young men can be recommended for Missionary Service at the age of 18.

I don’t remember much else from the Saturday Morning session, because everything in my older son’s life suddenly changed.

He was going to be eligible to start the application process in early December, but now, he can start the process right away.  Next week, we have an appointment with our bishop to get the process started.

He was planning on attending Utah Valley University for another semester–he’s there fulltime this semester–and then he would leave on his mission sometime after the end of Spring semester.  Instead, he will finish this semester, then focus on mission preparation.  He will likely tell the missionary department of the LDS Church that he can leave anytime after 1 January, 2013.

For my son, this isn’t a big shift.  He will likely leave only a few months earlier than he otherwise would have left.  Yet for my family, this is a big shift.  It’s something that every parent simultaneously anticipates and dreads–when their child leaves home.  The anticipation and excitement is because this is a pretty magical time of life for a person.  It’s a time full of decisions and changes.  It’s a time that sets a person’s direction in life.  It’s exciting to me that my son wishes to serve a mission for the LDS Church, because my mission was a time of intense growth for me in so many ways.

Yet the dread comes because once he leaves, the dynamic of our family will change, and likely change forever.  We’re going to miss having him here.  We’re going to miss his humor and his laughter and the personality that adds so much to the dynamic of this little family of four that will soon be a family of three.

This also accelerates the same process for younger son, who will be eligible to serve as soon as he graduates High School.

And then the nest will be empty.

It can’t be happening yet, can it?  Yet, today’s small, yet historic change in the LDS Church’s missionary program has seemed to make all of these changes almost immediate.  It has taken the “looming” event and made it seem more like it is happening right now.

I’m sad and excited.  I’m nervous and proud.  I’m feeling so many, many emotions all at once.

And yet, under all of this is the underlying feeling of peace that tells me that it’s right.  That’s what’s going to get us through these changes that we’ve been excitedly dreading for more than 18 years now.  It’s just right.