One day a young minister in West Virginia was being escorted through a coal mine. At the entrance to one of the dim passageways, he noticed a beautiful white flower growing out of all the black dust that invaded this flowers environment. Pointing at the flower “How can it blossom in such color and radiance in this dirty mine?” the preacher asked. “Throw some coal dust on it and see for yourself,” his guide replied. When he did, he was surprised that the fine, sooty particles slid right off the snowy white petals, leaving the plant just as clean and unstained as before. The surface of the petals were so smooth that the grit and grime had nothing to hold on to, the dirtiness that surrounded the plant could not get a grip on the flower and stain or even worse overtake and kill the flower. Our hearts in some ways are like that flower; we can not always control our surroundings. We live in a sinful world, we live in an era where like that flower we are surrounded by filth, we live in a
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