If I ask you to count your strengths then list may cross five or even it may reach ten. Now if I ask about your weaknesses. How many weaknesses do you think, you have? A couple of or say three or at the most five.
We are born with weaknesses as well as strengths. These could be physical or internal. We humans have the tendency to enhance or flaunt our strengths and suppress our weaknesses. But when it comes to others, we may start enhancing theirs weaknesses and suppress strengths. We always look others mistakes and weaknesses like searching thorns in flowers and start criticizing.
Let me tell you one story of a man who planted a small beautiful rose plant in his garden. He used to water it faithfully. One day he examined it closely.
He saw the bud that would soon blossom. Suddenly, small minute thorns caught his eyes.
He scanned the plant thoroughly. It had a few small thorns on it. As he touched those small thorns, it jabbed. He amazingly thought, ‘How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?’
Saddened by this thought, he stopped watering the plant, and before it was ready to bloom, it weakened and languished.
Source:http://www.stuffwiththing.com/2012/11/every-rose/
Just like rose, we humans are born with fragrant flowers and sharp thorns. There are roses and thorns in our soul.
Roses are our talents, strengths like inspiring, optimistic, friendly etc. and our loving heart which pumps fragrant energy and bring confidence in us just like sunflowers get energy from the rays of rising sun.
Thorns are our faults, our weaknesses like fearful, moody, undisciplined, stubborn etc.
These roses and thorns varies from person to person.
Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns i.e. defects. Hence we conclude, nothing good can possibly come from us. And we stop watering the good within us and eventually it dies within us. We never realize our or others potential and start criticizing and complaining. Finally, it gives birth to pessimism.
If someone don’t see roses in them then we must scratch and enhance their strengths and water them rather than criticizing.
One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns and find the roses 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. We call it building confidence.
Our duty is to enhance roses in others, not thorns. Only then we can achieve the love we should feel for each other; only then can we bloom in our own garden.
Keep Smiling…. 🙂
Thanks,
Aviral
cherrypositive.wordpress.com 