A man found a cocoon of a butterfly up over his awning.
One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched
the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its
big body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop
making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as
far as it could, and it could go no further. So 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 on the ground 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 life without any obstacles, it
would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could
have been. We would never be able to fly!

When I asked God for Strength....
He gave me Weakness that I became Strong.

When I asked God for Wisdom....
He gave me Problems to solve that I became Wiser.

When I asked God for Prosperity....
He gave me Wisdom and Strength that I became Prosperous.

When I asked God for Courage....
He gave me Danger that I became Courageous.

When I asked God for Love..................
He gave me Troubled people that I became Loving.

When I asked God for Favors...............
He gave me Opportunities that I became Favorable.

I received nothing I wanted....
I received everything I needed!

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the
race that is set before us,” -Hebrews 12:1