A man found a cocoon of 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 that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. So the man decided to help the butterfly, he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, 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 shriveled wings. It never was 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 tiny opening were 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 are allow go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly. So have a nice day and struggle a little. : )
Taken from: "The Mind's Retreat"
It's not something we enjoy or even like, but sometimes the greatest struggles of our life are the opportunities to come forth into a stronger and a more beautiful masterpiece. God uses diffucult times, seasons, and situations to develop our lives into a glorious picture of His power and love. So when you are struggling, hang in there, He has a reason and you will be stronger for it.
When I was little, I used to raise butterflies. I always enjoyed seeing the cute, fat caterpillars turn into beautiful, graceful creatures. This story rang true for me because sometimes my butterflies' wings would not properly develop and they would be unable to fly. It would break my heart to watch them struggle and fight, but in the end, they were unable to ever fly.
After the intense battle they experienced while hatching, they would have to hang and wait patiently for their wings to fill with the fluid from their body and dry. If they did not wait and began to crawl around, their wings couldn't properly develop. That also gave me the picture of how God deals with us. Sometimes, we just need to be patient, be still, wait, and allow Him to turn our shriveled up, ugly parts into something that is wonderful, beautiful and will enable us to fly. Don't rush things just because you are anxious to fly. It takes time to grow. Let God do His work in His time. Sometimes we need healing, sometimes we need time to develop, or sometimes we just need a rest and that is okay.
He will use our weakest areas for great things if we let Him. We don't need to spend our lives struggling and fighting our hurts, pains, and weaknesses. We need to sit at His feet, allow Him to fill our wings with His strength, and be prepared for something absolutely amazing. After all, struggles aren't for nothing.
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