One day while walking through the woods, a man found a                        cocoon. He decided to take the cocoon home to watch its                        transformation into a beautiful butterfly. He gently placed                        it on his table and watched it for several days.                        
One day, a small opening appeared and the cocoon started                          to move. The old man sat and watched it for several hours as it                          struggled and struggled to force its body from the cocoon.
                       
T hen it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared                          as if it had gotten as far as it could and was unable                          to go any farther. Finally, the old man feeling sorry                          for the cocooned butterfly, decided to help the butterfly.                          He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining                          bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then easily emerged.
hen it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared                          as if it had gotten as far as it could and was unable                          to go any farther. Finally, the old man feeling sorry                          for the cocooned butterfly, decided to help the butterfly.                          He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining                          bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then easily emerged.
                       
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 God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles,                          it would only cripple us. We would not be as strong as                          what we could have been.
                         And we could never fly.