By Jimi Teague

Several months ago, I attended a business training in Arizona. On my way home, while passing time in the airport, I picked up a package of Arizona Seeds for my youngest son. He’d been studying plants, and since we live in Missouri, I thought it’d be a fun little experiment—our own tiny piece of Arizona right at home.

But as life tends to go, the seeds got tossed into a drawer and forgotten for at least a month. One day, my son found them and decided it was time to plant. The little terra cotta pot that came with the seeds was sitting on the counter, and before I could step in to guide him, he had already dumped the entire packet into the pot and covered them with dirt—all in one big lump.

At first, I was frustrated. I wanted to say something, to help make it “right.” But I reminded myself it was a gift from an airport gift shop—probably more souvenir than science project—so I let it go. We set the pot on the windowsill and waited.

Every day, he checked on it. Nothing changed. Dirt was still just… dirt. While I quietly clung to my doubts, he held onto unshakable faith that his little cactuses would sprout any day.

After a couple of weeks, I gently suggested that we toss the pot and try again. But he wasn’t having it. He believed. So the pot stayed right there on the sill.

Then one day, a tiny green blob broke through the surface. I was convinced it was mold. He was convinced it was a cactus. A few days later, another green blob appeared. Then another. Within a week, 13 tiny baby cactuses had made their entrance. Months later, they’re still very small, but they’re alive—growing slowly and even starting to sprout little fuzzy prickles.

It got me thinking about how often our dreams or plans look a lot like my son’s baby cactuses. Maybe we plant the idea, but others don’t see the vision. Maybe they tell us it’s time to move on or suggest we dump the whole thing out and start over.

But the Law of Gestation says otherwise:

Plant your own idea seeds and then be patient. Don’t uproot your idea seed with doubt.

Just like his cactus seeds, your dreams may be growing beneath the surface, even if no one else can see them yet. There is a time for everything under the sun. So hold your ground, keep the faith, and don’t let doubt throw it out.

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