What a day! Woke up late but with a potch or two, was able to
get all the children off to school on time — that's an
accomplishment! Davening, breakfast . . . Did I say a
brochoh acharonoh or not? Well, I probably did.
R-i-n-g!!! Oh, good, I can wash the dishes while talking to a
friend.
"She said that to you? I wouldn't take it lying down.
You've got to give her a piece of your mind or she'll treat
you like a doormat. Yeah . . . Yeah, right. O.K. Have a good
day, bye."
Do some shopping, make a meal for a sick neighbor. Uh, oh,
this recipe really flopped. What a pain! Off to the garbage
it goes. Failure No. 1 for the day.
Still have time to take little Chani to the park. "Doesn't
she look so sweet in this outfit, Dvora? Not like that
nebich kid on the swing. Wonder if her mother is
colorblind; she couldn't have mismatched the child any more
even if she'd tried . . . "
Lunch, then homework. "Oh, come on! Can't you do
Chumash by yourself? I'm going to ask your teacher to
put you back in First Grade . . . Oh, alright. Stop crying
and let's do it together, already."
Dinner, bedtime. "Kids, you'll have to say Shema
yourselves, tonight. I've got to finish off this laundry."
Ahh, such nice neat piles, waiting to be put away. Think I'll
treat myself to some chocolate wafers. Mmmm. Yum!
"Oh, Chani, what did you do? Why are you so clumsy?" So much
for those nice piles of laundry. Well, I'm too tired to
refold them. Let it stay till tomorrow.
Goodnight, Hashem. Hope tomorrow will be better . . .
*
"My dear child," says Hashem, "getting the children off to
school on time `with potches' is not an accomplishment. Don't
you prefer when people treat you nicely?
"No, you didn't say a brochoh acharonoh after
breakfast, and believe Me, I've heard better davening
from people who owe Me a lot less than you do.
"About that phone call — how can you enjoy hearing
loshon hora after last night's shiur when you
heard what a terrible sin it is? With the creativity I
blessed you with, I know you could have found a way to judge
that person favorably and convey it to your friend on the
line. Well, at least you did end that conversation with a
blessisng for a nice day, even though you didn't give it any
thought . . .
"You chalked yourself up a failure for the meal you made for
a sick neighbor, which didn't turn out well. My precious
child, by Me, it's the effort that counts, not the results,
and you will certainly get reward for your act of
kindness.
"Funny, how what you think is a failure, I think of as a
success . . . And vice versa . . . Taking your child to the
park to make her happy, and to give her some fresh air and
sunshine to make her healthy, was a good deed, so you get a
mitzvah. Dressing in mismatched clothing is not a sin,
but looking down on others is. Who says you're any better
than her?
"Making meals for your family is a tremendous mitzvah,
and if you had had that in mind, your reward would have been
so much greater . . .
"Making hurtful remarks to your child while doing
Chumash homework is onoas devorim, and it will
not endear them to Torah, you know. And when you decide to
fold laundry instead of saying Shema with your
children, which is part of the very commandment of
veshinantom levoneicho, conveys to them a very
distorted order of priorities.
"And My goodness, eating a whole package of wafers is not
conducive to the mitzvah of `guarding your health' and
being holy and restrained. Couldn't you have shared or saved
some for the family and fulfilled `loving your neighbor as
yourself?'
"Well, I am proud of you for not getting angry at little
Chani when she knocked over the pile of laundry. That's a
real success of controlling yourself.
"Being Omnisicent, I know that you will have a good day
tomorrow. But whether your day is a success or a failure
— that is not in My hands . . . "
