A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully, and
before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw the bud that would
soon blossom and also the thorns. And he thought,
"How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with
so many sharp thorns?" Saddened by this thought, he neglected
to water the rose, and before it was ready to
bloom, it died.
So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose.
The God-like qualities planted in us at birth grow amid
he thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves
and see only the thorns, the defects. We
despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from
us. We neglect to water the good within us, and
eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.
Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone
else must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a
person can possess is to be able to reach past
the thorns and find the rose within others. This is the
characteristic of love, to look at a person, and knowing his
faults, recognize the nobility in his soul, and help him
realize that he can overcome his faults. If we show
him the rose, he will conquer the thorns. Then will he blossom,
blooming forth thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold
as it is given to him.
Our duty in this world is to help others by showing them their
roses and not their thorns. Only then can we
achieve the love we should feel for each
other; only then can we bloom in our own garden.
Author Unknown
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