The parable of the rose

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully.
Before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw a bud that
would soon blossom. He also saw 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, growing amidst
the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and
see only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking
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 don't see the rose within themselves. It takes someone
else to 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 truest, most innocent, and
gracious 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 their
faults. If we show them the rose, they will conquer the
thorns. 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 them
their roses and not their thorns. It is then that we
achieve the love we should feel for each other. Only then
can we bloom in our own garden.

Author Unknown


So many times in life I see that so, so, many people stereotype others, we see where they live, how they dress, the lack of..., and we tend to shy away from them. I have always tried to overlook the outside of people, I have always looked inside, and boy is there a lot of beauty in this world, when we get passed the wears and tears of life, is when we begin to see the beauty of our earth, the glory of our Father in heaven and the most important lesson that he teaches us....LOVE one another as well as ourselves, yes LOVE... If you are wearing blinders and can only see what is on the outside, I beg you to take off the blinders, put on the "super spy ex-ray glasses" and see on the inside. Don't let the thorns be the reason you neglect the bud, you will miss out on a beautiful garden if you do! Don't let your own thorns keep you from blossoming! I pray this day that you will see with your hearts and not with your eyes, that when you look in the mirror this morning you see the beautiful rose that you are and not let the thorns of your plant deter you from being all that you desire:) Love to you in Christ, amen.