newbee,
This is not a good example because its a destructive act.
The fact that it was a destructive act was the main point of my example. Adam Harishon eating from the pri etz hadaas was a destructive act, one that made serving Hashem and garnering his physical sustenance much more difficult. So now the struggle is our reality, and the more we struggle the better, but that’s not the way things really should be.
A better example would be that not only does he clean his room, but he cleans the entire house, in order to get more reward. … Secretly hoping dinner time is pushed off until later so he has more time to clean the most houses and get the most reward in the short span of “cleaning time” there is etc….
What should be more important, cleaning the house and getting a few more bucks, or relating to his parents over the dinner table? If he gets to where he is secretly hoping his parents would be delayed, then I think he is missing the point.