~The Rose Within~
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-but
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 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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