~ A 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 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 and 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~