We must all ask ourselves, “When will we consider the project of our children a success? When will we consider ourselves to have achieved the much-desired nachas from our child? When can we check off the תפילת השל"ה, and write: Done, completed?” The answer is: Never. We’re never done with this project. There will always be nisyonos—and may the Ribbono shel Olam grant us only revealed good—in this area even into our old age.
It is a fantasy to think that we shep nachas with a soup ladle... when our son’s mashgiach called to give us a good report. We must adjust our attitude and realize that shepping nachas is something that must happen at every moment, as we’re engaged in the chinuch of our children. We must take pleasure and joy in the work of proclaiming Hashem’s Name in the world through our actions, and by instilling it into our children. Even when our children are infants and toddlers, we’re instilling this into them, through our mesirus nefesh, and by the mesorah we transmit to them. This is nachas. We’re revealing Elokus.
