The first stages of your life are to learn to be a master over yourself.
But then comes a major and difficult transition in life, when you take on the responsibilities of a family.
Now you must learn to put aside your own self-improvement for their sake.
I think it’s saying just that-you’re self improvement just shifts from your own inner work to inner work that results from raising a family Reply
disagree When your children are growing up you still must continue to grow with them. Putting aside your won self , or self improvement is detrimental to everybody around you including yourself. Your own self improvement has a trickle down effect. It should last until the day you die. Reply
I agree with Miriam from Lakewood's comment on 8-6. Our character refinement deepens and expands in the process of raising a family. There is no separation between individual character refinement per se and one's character refinement in relation to other human beings & to God. If God is One, as we affirm in the Shema, so is our life with God, other human beings, and ourselves. Once we have children, our souls do not stop growing and yearning for God. Quite the contrary. The growth can become exponential and at the same time become one with our Creator.