Tuesday’s are my day to focus on marketing at work. Today, I was going through some files on the shared drive to help stir up some marketing ideas when I came across a neat little story of a man trying to help a butterfly…
“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 progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no further. 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 lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!
I asked for strength; And God provided difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for wisdom; And God provided problems for me to solve.
I asked for prosperity; And God provided me with brain and brawn to work.
I asked for courage; And God provided danger to overcome.
I asked for love; And God provided troubled people for me to help.
I asked for favors; And God provided opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted; I received everything I needed!
May your path be bright and full of light everywhere you go. And, I pray your feet will never stumble out of God’s plan.
May the desires of your heart come true, and may you experience peace in everything you do.
May goodness, kindness, and mercy come your way and may you gain Wisdom and grow in the Lord everyday.”
This story reminds me of James 1:2-4, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Like the butterfly and his cocoon, we need trials in order to persevere. What is there to persevere through if there are no trials? When trials do come, we should be thankful God cares enough about us to want us to grow mature and complete in our faith.
recklesslove316 