A discouraged minister once dreamed that he was standing on the top of a great granite rock, trying to break it with a pickaxe.  Hour after hour he worked on with no result.  At last he said, "It is useless; I will stop."  Suddenly a man stood by him and asked, "Were you not allotted this task? And if so why are you going to abandon it?" 

The minister replied, "My work is in vain; I can make no impression on the granite." Then the stranger solemnly replied, "That is nothing to you; your duty is to pick, whether the rock yields or not.  The work is yours, the results are in other hands; work on." In his dream the minister saw himself setting out anew on his labor, and at the first blow the rock flew into hundreds of pieces.

This story brings to mind a point I have often considered when I have become discouraged in my efforts to serve the Lord and His people.  If indeed I have been called to the work of the ministry, it is my duty to labor on whether I see any great fruits of my efforts or not.  Most assuredly, it does sometimes seem like my little feeble efforts are almost, if not altogether, futile.  But the Lord did not call me to labor only when I felt good about my efforts, but to faithfully struggle on, "in season, out of season" leaving the sequel to Him.  I have many times had to fall back on the words of Galatians 6:9, "Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." 

If the Lord has called us to a task, let us do it with our might, even if we seem to be making little progress.  "It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful" (I Cor. 4:2). ---Elder Ralph Harris