Blue Cat’s family’s home teachers came by today. (Wondering what home teachers are? They’re folks from our church who visit once a month with a lesson, and who you can call when you need help with something. Blue Cat thinks they’re very cool.) They gave a lesson on starting anew – since that’s what people (and crocheted cats) think about at the beginning of a new year. And they talked about trees.
Well – actually about planting trees. The topic of the lesson was “when is the best time to plant a tree?” or when is the best time to start a new habit or start trying to improve yourself. Blue Cat scratched his head about this for a while, but then the home teachers gave him the answer (from an old proverb): “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.”
In other words, Blue Cat learned that we need to start early to reap the benefits of a plan – it takes a while for trees to grow and habits to form. But he also learned that we can’t just give up if we didn’t start early – now is the best to to start becoming the person we want to be. We can decide now and then move towards our goal. We shouldn’t wait for the perfect time or let discouragement delay us – because if we keep waiting, we won’t get to where we want to be.
So Blue Cat is starting his improvement plan now, and you should too. Here’s a picture to help you remember – you can’t have avocados unless you get that seed into the dirt. So plant that seed – start that effort to become what you want to be – and think how happy you’ll be that you did.
Want to read the whole lesson on “The Best Time to Plant a Tree?” Click here.
© William P Doyle, Jr 2014 All Rights Reserved
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