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.

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.

- Unknown