Do you ever get impatient with how long some things take? I think we all do, but it is important for us to take some time to realize that important works take time. One of the great philosophers (and I can’t remember which one it was) said that “A mushroom grows up over night, but it takes a decade for a great oak tree to fully develop.”

Those are good words to keep in mind when you think of raising your children. How much of what you do and of what you teach your children appears to be “falling on deaf ears”? Yet, years from now, when your children are mature, you will see that your work has finally produced its fruit. It takes years for an oak to come to maturity, so too the work you do with your children. This is also true of marriage and close friendships; they take quite a bit of time to develop fully.
Teachers, social workers, counselors, and a host of other laborers cannot always immediately see the results of their work; they must patiently wait for the harvest that is to come. If you are feeling a bit discouraged because you do not see any results from the hard work that you are doing, perhaps it is because you are planting “oaks” and not “mushrooms”. Patience … let the seed you plant today come to its full stature before you make any judgment about the work of your life.