A man found a cocoon resting on a branch. He sat and watched for several hours as the butterfly inside struggled to push its body through the small hole at the top.

Suddenly the butterfly stopped making any progress. It seemed to be stuck. The man decided to help the butterfly. He used a knife to snip off the cocoon. The butterfly emerged with a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man sat waiting for the wings to enlarge and support the butterfly. But that didn’t happen. The butterfly was unable to fly, and it crawled around with its tiny wings and swollen body until it fell to the ground and died.

The man didn’t understand that the butterfly’s struggle to get free of the cocoon was nature’s way of forcing fluid from its body into its wings to prepare it for flying once it was out of the cocoon.

Moral: Our struggles in life often develop our strengths.