The Rose Within

Many years ago, a man planted a rose and watered it faithfully.  Before it

blossomed, he examined it carefully. He saw the bud that would soon blossom

but he also noticed 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 that her faults, can still recognize the nobility in her soul, and help her realize that she can overcome her faults. If we show her the rose, she will conquer the thorns. Then will she blossom, blooming forth thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold as it is given to her.

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.