One day a small opening appeared on a cocoon, a little girl sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force it’s body through that little opening.

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 little girl continued to watch the butterfly because she expected that, at any moment, the wings would expand to be able to support the body, which
would contract in time.

Neither happened.

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of it’s life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the little girl in her kindness and haste did not understand, was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the opening. The butterfly itself had to force the fluid from the body of the butterfly into it’s wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved it’s freedom from the cocoon.

Without struggle, there is no progress, there is no strength.