{"id":2571,"date":"2018-02-08T07:21:25","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T07:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/?p=2571"},"modified":"2018-02-08T07:23:34","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T07:23:34","slug":"parable-of-the-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/?p=2571","title":{"rendered":"Parable of the Rose"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Gran and Bobby were walking around Gran\u2019s garden one afternoon, and they came to the patch where the roses were growing. Gran loved her carpet roses which are the sort that naturally sprawl all over the ground, making a great thick tangled \u201ccarpet\u201d on the ground if they are left. They are a very tough rose and very seldom get diseases like black spot on their leaves, and Gran really loved them.<\/p>\n

\u201cGran\u201d, Bobby said, \u201cHow do you get them to stand up straight and tall with those mop tops?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you see\u201d, said Gran, \u201cIf I left them to grow how they want to grow, they would just be a tangled mess on the ground, so that\u2019s why I trim them up to keep them tidy.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pointed to the tallest ones at the back of the patch, \u201cThose are the first ones I trained like that Bobby,\u201d she said, \u201cAnd you can see they are now standing tall and slim with a \u201cmop top\u201d that gets covered with flowers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Then she pointed to the ones in front. \u201cThose are the young plants that grew from cuttings last year. Every year, after the hot summer sun has finished, the rose plants sprout their new growth from the bottom of their main stem\u2026see these ones here\u201d, and Gran got down beside the front ones. \u201cSee these lovely long shoots, looking so healthy and strong. But they can\u2019t be left there because then they will make the \u201ccarpet\u201d on the ground and lose their \u201cstandard\u201d look\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gran pulled the long new shoots off at the base of the roses, saying \u201cI know this is going to hurt them but it has to be done to keep their beautiful shape. Each year the main stem is getting stronger and stronger, and keeping its shape so the flowers can be seen up high instead of dragging on the ground!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bobby watched as Gran snipped off a few more. \u201cWhat are you going to do with those ones you\u2019ve cut off?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll keep the best ones. \u201c Gran said, \u201cand put them in fresh soil to become the new cuttings for the next year. The ones from the year before that have taken root and are now growing on their own, and I\u2019ve staked and tied them up. Then in another year or so, they will stand tall and straight with their \u201cmop tops\u201d like the main ones at the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWow!\u201d said Bobby, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more to growing roses than I thought!\u201d<\/p>\n

They slowly walked back to the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does all this mean?\u201d Bobby asked, \u201cYou always seem to know what things mean!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d said Gran, \u201cIt reminds me how God has a garden with all sorts of plants growing in it. We are all different just as the flowers are all different, and they all need different ways of being looked after. Some of us are like the roses we\u2019ve just been looking at. If we\u2019re left to ourselves, we sprawl all over the ground, getting tangled up with each other, and having disagreements, each wanting to go our own way. But as God, our Master Gardener, trims us up, He takes off the unwanted stalks and shoots, and helps us to stand tall and straight for Him. He doesn\u2019t leave us to wave around in the wind any old way, but He ties us firmly to a stake so we can grow tall and straight for Him.<\/p>\n

\u201c Yes, it does hurt at times, and other times we can\u2019t see why a perfectly strong healthy shoot has to be taken off, but He knows that it will spoil the picture He has in His mind for us. The plant will sometimes put all its energy into that new growth, rather than into bearing the flowers that He wants to see in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I never thought of anything like that, Gran,\u201d Bobby said, \u201cThat\u2019s really neat!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the next time we have disappointments, let\u2019s ask ourselves what we can learn from them, and straighten ourselves up to bear flowers for our Gardener to see \u00a0and enjoy,\u201d said Gran, \u201cand do you know what Bobby? I\u2019m discovering that the older I get, I\u2019m like that first rose plant I put in the ground, with its main stalk all gnarled and wrinkled.\u00a0 But there are still unwanted shoots coming out of me that have to be taken off so I can bear flowers for God to enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh,\u201d said Bobby slowly as they reached the house, \u201cSo that means that it doesn\u2019t matter how old or how young we are, we still have to have those straggly shoots taken off us?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d said Gran, \u201cBut it\u2019s not all too hard, Bobby. We still have God\u2019s stick\u00a0 beside us to hold us up and stand straight and strong for Him! Anyway, let\u2019s go inside \u00a0and put the jug on and have a nice hot drink!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Gran and Bobby were walking around Gran\u2019s garden one afternoon, and they came to the patch where the roses were growing. Gran loved her carpet roses which are the sort that naturally sprawl all over the ground, making a great thick tangled \u201ccarpet\u201d on the ground if they are left. They are a very … Continue reading Parable of the Rose<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,247],"tags":[402,403,401],"class_list":["post-2571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grandmas-stories","category-stories-for-teens","tag-flowers","tag-gods-rule","tag-trim-up"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p69z0J-Ft","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2574,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions\/2574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblestudies4you.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}