When you tell yourself, “I can do this all my life!” this is your vision talking. It is imperative that you develop an awareness of hearing yourself say such words. When you catch yourself in that moment, you will be able to identify the feeling you are living with. Identifying the feeling is like striking gold, or finding land after a long voyage at sea. You now have a focused destination and a clear place to reach.

The Levi’im were given jobs, not an inheritance of cash or assets. Rather, they received an inheritance of service, duty, and mission. From birth they were taught the beauty of a life of service to Hashem. It may seem to many of us that we would prefer to create our very own path and find our own footing within our finite and numbered years on earth. Yet that would mean uniting our desires, feelings, and actions to shape ourselves into the personalities we wish to one day become. It seems like this would be the way to go, since we often smirk at nepo babies who have yet to taste struggle and the sweat of their brow. But the Levi, in his life, has to do exactly what we do in ours. The only difference is that they are born with the knowledge and are raised with the feeling of, “I can do this all my life!”

Teaching our kids the proper way, not out of forceful dictatorship but instead by being an example of love and kindness, will shape them into greats that will change the world. It is hard work to live a life of service when we are drawn to worldly distractions which have, over time, become habits, addictions, or worse. If we chase every shiny object and manipulate our feelings all day long, we may never find that sought-after dry land we so dream of setting our feet........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)