Life's Challenges Make Us Stronger
 

A Butterfly



A man found a cocoon for a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared,
he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to force its body through the little hole.
Then it seemed to stop making any progress.
It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could
and could go no farther.
Then the man decided to help the butterfly.

He took a pair of scissors and snipped
the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily.
Something was strange.
The butterfly had a swollen body and shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly
because he expected at any moment,
the wings would enlarge and expand
to be able to support the body, which would contract
in time. Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the
rest of its life crawling around with a
swollen body and deformed wings.
It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand,
was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required
for the butterfly to get through the small opening
of the cocoon are God`s way of forcing
fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings
so that it would be ready for flight
once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.

If God allowed us to go through all our life
without any obstacles, that would cripple us.
We would not be as strong
as what we could have been. Not only that,
we could never fly.