STRUGGLES IN OUR LIVES Author Unknown

A man found a cocoon of an emperor moth. He took it home so that he could watch the moth come out of the cocoon.

On the day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the moth for several hours as the moth struggled to force it 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 farther. It just seemed to be stuck. Then the man, in his kindness, decided to help the moth, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The moth then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the moth 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 little moth spent the rest of its life crawling around 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 the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the moth to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Freedom and flight would only come after the struggle. By depriving the moth of a struggle, he deprived the moth of health.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles. He would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. How true this is! How many times have we wanted to take the quick way out of struggles and difficulties, to take those scissors and snip off the remaining bits in an attempt to be free. We need to remember that our loving Father will never give us more that we can bear and through our trials and struggles we are strengthened as gold is refined in the fire.

"May we never let the things we can't have, or don't have, or shouldn't have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have." Don't focus on the things you DON'T have, enjoy each moment of every day God has given you. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. So let's take today, even with its struggles and make it a good day ... our loving Father God has given this day to me to use as best as I can. The struggles of life won't go away, but remember that God is allowing us to go through it for a reason.

Disturb us, O Lord when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, when we arrived in safely because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, O. Lord when with the abundance of the things we possess we have lost our thirst for the water of Life; when having fallen in love with time we have ceased to dream of Eternity; and in our efforts to build the new earth have allowed our vision for the New Heaven to grow dim.

Stir us, O Lord to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms shall show Thy mastery, where losing sight of land we shall find the stars. In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes and invited the brave to follow Him.