Stop Counting Your Failures!

There's a father to a 16-year-old whose name is Eedan. [music] And slowly but surely the father saw that his son is deteriorating in shmiras hamitzvos. His tfila wasn't the same. Shabbos observance wasn't the same. The benching, it's all going downhill. And his parents were so upset, but what can they do? 16 years old. A little while later, Eedan calls his father, "Dad, can we talk?" And he sits his father down, he says, "Dad, I decided that I'm no longer frum." >> [music] >> The father and mother, they were devastated. The following day, father goes to shul and he sees that Eedan is there in shul. He puts on tfilin and he stays longer than everybody else in shul. Comes time to bench, he's looking at the siddur and he's benching word for word. Shabbos he keeps and he does all the mitzvos. It was so strange. After 2 weeks that this has been going on, he calls his son, he says, "Can I ask you a question?" And he says, "Sure." He says, "I don't understand. You told me you're secular. You're not frum anymore. Is this how a secular [music] person behaves?" And Eedan says to his father, "Dad, it's very simple. >> [music] >> When I used to be frum, you used to count my avairos. Now that I'm secular, you count my [music] mitzvos." This is a great story of chinuch, but it's not just about Eedan and chinuch, it's about us. We need to start counting our achievements. We need to cherish our accomplishments. We need to celebrate our success instead of ruminating on our failures. [music] Don't look at the times that you failed. You're human. Look at the times that there's so many times that you were able to overcome.