Hi Chacha5!
I have a story theexpresses the importance of a mitzva but its thru the opposite of the mitzva (bear with me and ull understand)
There was once a man named Moshe who worked extremly hard to make ends meet for his family. He lived during the depression, where there was much anti- semitism in America and could not get off work for Shabbos. So each week, he would be fired and sometimes not get paid, in order to be mesirus nefesh for Shabbos. Each week he came home right before Shabbos, in a completly bitter mood and would go into the holy day angry and mad that he had made the choice to leave his job over Shabbos.
Years went by and he continued this trend. As his children got older, he noticed they were going off the derech. They, in fact, stopped keeping Shabbos. Moshe was so confused and upset. He went to his Rabbi and cried “But Rabbi How could this happen! I kept Shabbos all these years! How could it be that all three of my children leave the ways of Hashem, the way of Shabbos!?” The Rabbi responded, ” Moshe, when you came home each week, were you proud of your mesirus nefesh, no matter how hard it must have been on you?” Moshe replied, “No Rabbi, I was bitter and angry. After all, I had to give up my pay often and my job! It was such a hard thing on me. I would go in with regret” The Rabbi said, “Moshe, this is why your children have strayed from the path of Torah. If you would have gone in with true mesirus nefesh, your children would have picked up on it, and would have had an even stronger faith. Just as a Jew keeps Shabbos, Shabbos keeps a Jew. Don’t forget that.”