See the Beauty in the Thorns and Enjoy the Roses

Recently a man commented on a video that I had posted on Facebook, attacking my religious beliefs.  I spent the morning thinking of what I could say to make him "eat his words."  I thought of several possibilities.  I could have made some sassy comeback or I could have attacked his personal religious beliefs but that wouldn't have been very Christ-like of me.  All I could think was he was focusing on some small detail and was failing to see the beauty of the book.  As I kept thinking about the situation, all that came to my mind was, "Forget the thorns and enjoy the roses."  
Yep, life has all sorts of types of thorns.  Some are sharper than others.  Some big and some small.  The trials of life, misunderstandings, heartbreak, confusions, a clouded future, poor health, and lost dreams can be on a long list of thorns in our lives.  Many times in life we focus so much on the thorns that we keep getting poked and pricked that we reopen our own wounds we thought we had already closed and yet leaving another scar.  Focusing on the negative poisons our thoughts and make the thorns in our lives seem even bigger and sharper. 

 We get so deep into them that we forget to see what is growing along with them, the roses.  

      Even among the thorns, the roses blow strong, bright, colorful, and unique.  They start out as small bud and slowly bloom into gorgeous roses even though they are surrounded by tough thorns.  There are so many thorns in life but there are also incredible roses.  Sunrises, sunsets, nature's own flowers, a hug from a friend, a comforting word from a parent, breathing everyday, and even you.  Sometimes it is very hard to recognize those beautiful roses no matter how small or big they are.  We spend more energy focusing on the pain and the hurt than we do focusing on the blessings.  The thorns are what make the roses beautiful.  If our lives didn't have thorns we couldn't enjoy the beauty of life's roses.  We can either let those thorns poison us or we can use them to strengthen ourselves.  It is not easy to fight against all those nasty thorns.  It sucks actually.  But we all can do it.  The harder we push ourselves the more beautiful and the stronger we become.  We can even do it better when we allow the loving Gardener, our Heavenly Father, to take over.  We should take each thorn in life as a blessing. Just think how amazing you will be after pushing past all that. Just think about how many more people you will be able to help amongst the thorns if you are stronger.  So recognize those thorns and prepare to become the best, the strongest, the brightest, and the most beautiful you-rose that you have ever seen. 

 

yeah I know they aren't roses but they're still pretty ;)