Parable of the Rose

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully.Before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw a bud thatwould soon blossom. He also saw the thorns, and hethought, "How can any beautiful flower come from a plant,burdened with so many sharp thorns?"

Saddened by thisthought, he neglected to water the rose, and before it wasready 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, growing amidstthe thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves andsee only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinkingnothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect towater the good within us, and eventually it dies. We neverrealize our potential.

Some don't see the rose within themselves. It takes someoneelse to show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a personcan possess is to be able to reach past the thorns and findthe rose within others. This is the truest, most innocent, andgracious characteristic of love - to know another person,including their faults, recognize the nobility in their soul,and yet still help another to realize they can overcome theirfaults. If we show them the rose, they will conquer thethorns. Only then will they blossom, and most likely,blooming thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold, as it is given to them. Our duty in this world is to help others, by showing themtheir roses and not their thorns. It is then that weachieve the love we should feel for each other. Only thencan we bloom in our own garden.

Author Unknown