Growing in Grace
If I could make each one of my readers realize how utterly helpless we are in the matter of growing, I am convinced a large part of the strain would be taken out of many lives at once.
Imagine a child possessed of the monomania that he would not grow unless he made some personal effort after it. He might, it is true, spend his days and years in weary strain, but after all there would be no change, “No man by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature;” and his years of labor would be only wasted, if they did not really hinder the longed-for end.
Grow, dear friends; but grow, I beseech you, in God’s way, which is the only effectual way. See to it that you are planted in grace, and then let the Divine Husbandman cultivate you in his own way and by his own means. Put yourselves out in the sunshine of his presence and let the dew of heaven come down upon you and see what will come of it.
Leaves and flowers must surely come in their season; for your husbandman is a skillful one, and he never fails in his harvesting.
by Unknown, The Beautiful Tree of Life, 1891
