A 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.
God like qualities planted in us at birth growing 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 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.