A Butterfly's Lesson

One day, a man sat and watched a butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through a little hole in a cocoon.

Then it seemed to stop making any progress.

It appeared as if it had gone as far as it could and could not go any further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly: he took a pair of scissors and opened the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily.

But it had a withered body, it was tiny and had shrivelled wings.

The man continued to watch because he expected that the wings would open, expand and enlarge any moment, to be able to support the butterfly's body and slowly becoming firm.

Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a withered body and shrivelled wings.

It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and goodwill, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the opening were God's way of forcing the fluids from the body of the butterfly into its wing so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggle are exactly what we need in life.

If God allowed us to go through life without obstacle, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. And we would have ever been able to "fly".

Let your child live life without fear; let her confront all obstacles. Be convinced she can overcome them.