Proverbs 14:4 (NLTSE) Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.

Oh, this plant stimulant is fun! This verse states it very poetically but here is the bottom line: where there is activity there is a mess!

Here is another way to say it: where there is growth there is waste.

Can all you clean freaks, neat maniacs, and people opposed to clutter unanimously say Amen!

The problem is this, if you want growth or harvest as the verse above says it, you will have a mess.

But do messes qualify as a plant stimulant? True it’s not like the other plant stimulants of hunger or step by step, and maybe I am stretching the definition. But if you want to grow you will make mistakes, go backwards sometimes, have things that you wished happened differently, and have to do clean up every once in a while.

But this is good! This means you are working for a harvest! You can only keep things perfectly clean in your actions and behavior if you never do anything that you are not already good at. You want to grow? That means you have to attempt to do things you have never done before.

What is it that every coach or instructor tells you, “practice makes perfect.” What does that mean exactly? You are not perfect for a long time.

As we end this blog series on how to grow let me encourage you with all of my heart on the principles of growth.

Stay hungry, keep walking, don’t fear messes, and you will grow!