Many years ago, I read a story about a man who was watching a butterfly break out of its cocoon. The man could see the butterfly struggling to break through the wall of the cocoon and decided to give it some help. He broke off the leaf that held the cocoon and took it into the house. With an Exacto knife and a small tweezers, he carefully cut open the wall of the cocoon. The butterfly worked it's way out through the opening and plopped out onto the man's kitchen table. He carefully moved the butterfly on to a sheet of paper and took it outside so it could fly away.
But after a few minutes, the butterfly stopped moving. Unable to spread it's wings, it lay motionless as the man watched in bewilderment.
Apparently, the butterfly needs the struggle of breaking through the cocoon to pump blood into it's wings. Without that struggle, it cannot gain the strength to fly. Without the ability to fly, it cannot survive. Though the man had a noble intention by trying to help the butterfly through it's struggle, he deprived the butterfly from the essential process it needed to grow and mature and ultimately survive.
Though we try to avoid struggle, it is absolutely necessary for our growth and maturity as people. When I think about the times I tried to rescue my children from pain and discomfort, I was actually doing them a disservice by not allowing them to experience the struggle that would help them to grow up.
Like the butterfly, we are built to struggle and need that experience to fully grow into our life.
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