The Butterfly Story

There is a story about a little boy who was playing outdoors and he found a caterpillar. 

He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it. 

The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a stick to climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat. 

Then he saw the caterpillar climb up the stick and act strangely and his mother explained that the caterpillar was forming a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.

The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. The little boy watched it every day waiting for the butterfly to emerge. 

One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.

At first, the boy was really excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn’t break free! It looked desperate! It looked like it was making no progress! 

The boy was concerned and he wanted to help. So he ran to get scissors, and snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged! 

But when the butterfly came out, the boy was surprised that the body was small and the wings were shriveled. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that at any moment the wings would dry out, enlarge, and expand to support the very small body.

But that didn’t happen. 

The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a very small body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly. 

The boy tried to figure out what had gone wrong. He went to a local college to talk to a scientist and he learned that the butterfly was supposed to struggle. 

In fact, the butterfly’s struggle to push its way through the tiny opening of the cocoon pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never ever fly.

As you go through life, keep in mind that struggling is an important part of any growth, because it allows you to develop your wings and fly to your highest purpose. 

We all have our own battles to face and changes to make…

So tell me: How is the struggle you’re facing happening FOR you? What are you learning? 

Keep groWING.