Article July 13, 1992 Issue

You can't force spiritual growth

Spiritual growth is as natural as the blossoming of flowers in spring. We nurture this growth by seeking to know God better and obeying His commands.

Clifford Kapps Eriksen

In late winter, have you ever cut a few branches from a flowering shrub and "forced" them to bloom indoors ahead of their appropriate time? The sight of such blossoms does much to cheer a household when the signs of winter are still in evidence outdoors.

Sadly, though, those hints of spring sometimes last only for a brief time and must soon be discarded. If, on the other hand, the branches are allowed to remain as part of the mother plant and blossom when their inner growth dictates that they are ready to do so, they usually beautify the entire landscape for a longer duration and express the beauty of their source. What a powerful lesson this can teach us!

Haven't we all at some time tried to hasten a solution to a difficulty in our lives, to "force" an outcome that we've humanly outlined as appropriate? And if those forced solutions do succeed, their duration is generally brief, offering only temporary solace and a false sense of security. Healing solutions stemming from divine Love, however, do not appear in this fashion. They are the result of steady spiritual growth within thought—irresistible and irreversible.

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