Do you feel hopeless about your kids, or about yourself? Do you think that you have no chance of improving? Here is a text sent by a mother who prefers to remain anonymous:
"My son received his report card that was not good, and I find myself already stressing about next year. This week we begin reading the Book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), and I suddenly noticed: In his first encounter with G-d, Moshe Rabbenu declares: 'For I am not a man of words... I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue'. And here, now his life journey ends, and he says goodbye to the People. The Book of Devarim, which we begin reading this week, begins with the following words: These are the things (words) that Moshe spoke to all of Israel. The entire book contains long speeches of Moshe Rabbenu, in his moving speeches to the People. What happened here? How did we move from 'Not a man of words' to 'These are the words'? Our Sages explain: Moshe Rabbenu received from the Holy One Blessed Be He, a mission and a role. He must take the People out of Egypt, teach them Torah and lead them to the Land. When one has a goal and a purpose - one can overcome many difficulties, even professional diagnoses and an erroneous self-image. This is an important message: the situation we see in front of us now, is not static. The same Moshe who said 'I am not a man of words', has turned into an eternal person, someone whose words give purpose and meaning to our lives every day for thousands of years now.”
