How high does a sycamore grow?

I, like many other teenage girls, am a Disney princess fanatic.  I'm one of those girls who takes pictures with the princesses at Disney World and has a Disney princess calendar.  I've watched all the movies, worn the costumes, and know every word to every song.  I'm the one who gets mad when people try to recreate the classic stories, because nothing beats the originals.
Today I put my ipod on shuffle while I cleaned my room.  As I cleaned, "Colors of the Wind" from the movie Pocahontas came on. (Yes, I do have most of the princess movie soundtracks on my ipod. Don't hate.) In the song, Pocahontas is singing to John Smith, an Englishman who has come to America to explore the land.  In the bridge of the song, Pocahontas sings "how high does a sycamore grow? If you cut it down, than you'll never know."  At first I sang this line as I usually would, letting the words roll off my tongue without really thinking about them.  But then, I paused.  I rewound the song, listening to the wise words of Pocahontas again... this time more carefully.  "How high does a sycamore grow? If you cut it down, than you'll never know."
I began thinking about leadership in the church.  A lot of times, young Christians are "cut down" before they are ever given a chance to grow.  So many new believers start out so strong in the Lord, but because they are not discipled and encouraged by more mature believers, they fall.  They are "cut down" and never really mature past an infant level of spiritual maturity.
This week I witnessed an amazing revival among the students in my youth group.  I realized that I had been cutting most of the new believers down.  They would fall, and instead of encouraging them and praying that God would build them back up, I would write them off as a faker and give up on them.  But this week God showed me that He will NEVER lose any of his sheep (Luke 15:3-7).  He has a firm hold on each one of us and will do whatever it takes to bring us back to Him.  It is our job as mature believers to build up those struggling in their faith.  I have seen this week that God has a huge plan for each one of these new followers!  If we cut them down while they're young and lose hope, we will never know how high they will grow!
I'm still learning.  And I know I'll still struggle with being persistent with young believers.  But it is IMPERATIVE that we don't give up on them!  God will use them, he just needs to use YOU to encourage them first!
"So encourage one another and build each other up, just as you are already doing." 1 Thessalonians 5:11