The Rose

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 the 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 fault

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

~Author Unknown~