When i worked as a school librarian, I had the opportunity to read to small children. One story I read from the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel especially comes back to me from time to time.

A frog who decides to plant some seeds is disappointed because there is no response from them, not even after they have been in the ground a couple of hours! Frog proceeds to try all kinds of things to encourage germination, but each additional effort doesn't seem to get results. Finally, by nightfall, he decides that the seeds must be afraid of the dark, so he brings out some candles and stays up to sing to them to soothe them. In due course, the seeds do finally sprout, but by then poor Frog is so frazzled by all his work, he decides it is just too tough a job for him ever to try again.

This story is often just what I need when confronted by some disturbing event or fear. My first reaction is momentarily to forget all the fine examples of God's healing power I have grown to know and have experienced. Instead, I become anxious and defensive.

What Frog didn't know—and what we often forget—is that growth is a mandate, a law, that can't be changed or ignored. We could point out to Frog that all the lovely trees and shrubs around him have grown and are growing just fine! Would it not be worthwhile for us, when faced with some difficult circumstance, to acknowledge that God governs our spiritual growth when we turn to Him and follow His direction? We have the spiritual sense and the ability to grasp what God is revealing to us.

And evidence of God's presence is truly all around us to see. Science and Health states, "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all" (p. 468). There is nothing actually created by any other source. The Bible says we are to witness God's power (see Isa. 44:8). We are not to act as though we can provide some additional help of our own inventing. Our role in spiritual growth and healing is to look for what is spiritually true about the situation, to identify and cherish the truth, the evidence of God's goodness and the perfection of what He creates.

One might say the seeds of Truth are planted in consciousness all the time. Divine Mind is constantly revealing what is true. With prayer and listening, we become aware of these spiritual intuitions of God's power and love.

How can we nurture these seeds of Truth? Frog may have misunderstood the timing and intensity of the work, but he wasn't completely wrong. There is something we should do, as Christ Jesus' parables about growing things show. We can stand ready to pull out any weeds, such as fear or self-pity, which would hide the truth. We should be watchful. We should pour in devotion to God, divine Spirit, maintaining the trusting patience to stick with our budding understanding of spiritual ideas.

What I see God gently providing me as I obediently turn to Him in prayer and listen, is the assurance that the seeds of Truth in my thought inevitably increase. That's the way God's creation is revealed, continuously. The revelation shows God's man to be the perfect expression of divine Life.

Why can we assume that spiritual growth is inevitable? Because growth is the only possible result of living more and more in accord with God.

Here is one modest example: One winter, my husband and I were traveling by automobile the day after a particularly bad snowstorm. We were in an unfamiliar area of the country, and we were not equipped with any detailed map. While we traveled, I had been nurturing a seed of Truth, thinking about the trip in spiritual terms—that all activity was actually going on peacefully in the one divine Mind. Though we had spent sixteen hours pressing on in very severe weather conditions, we had had no close encounters with other cars, nor had we witnessed any serious harm to other vehicles. I was most grateful.

But the great mass of cars, trying to negotiate the few lanes of highway that had been plowed, led to many tie-ups. After waiting over an hour in one seemingly endless tie-up, we turned off on a side road. Then we came to a place where we had to make a choice of direction, though we had no hint as to what was correct.

Approaching this point, I had realized the folly of ruminating on how tired we were, and so on. I now knew there was one seed of Truth that had been planted and was definitely growing. That was the fact that God is infinite Mind and infinite Mind knows where we are, and as a reflection of that Mind, I had to know, too.

Without hesitation, and without any visible clues, I said "Turn left."

This choice took us around the whole tie-up and eventually even led us home. We arrived before our scheduled time.

The beauty of this experience, as with all growth lessons, is that in the end I realized that perfect intelligence, divine intelligence, was always present. Once again, I had grown to see and trust God's wise and loving care.

We don't have to make Frog's mistake and think that we govern growth. Growth is impelled and governed by God. We, then, should be patient and obedient, ready for the next step in the work of God.