Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

The Rose

    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, 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~

    Sign My Guestbook
    View My Guestbook