The fairest of them all

When I went to Lowe's to buy my tomato plants on a Monday morning in spring, I found they had all been sold on Sunday except for two scraggly plants left to wither and die in their peat pots. I took pity on one, bought it, kept it from the heat in the car and verbally nourished it on the way home. Then I gave it a big gulp of water, let it absorb and placed it in a nice hole in my garden. "You will grow to be a big, beautiful plant," I whispered. It took time to establish roots but then started growing by leaps and bounds. Now this fine specimen is my most prolific tomato bearer. With encouragement and belief in its possibility, this plant, a living thing, became strong and thrived. Analogous?