There was a little boy who loved caterpillars. One day he found one, took him home and made a home for him. He watched this caterpillar everyday making sure he had plenty of food and water.
One day the caterpillar started creating a cocoon…here he would go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly. This was so exciting, the little boy couldn’t wait to see the butterfly!
One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out. The little boy was so excited!
But then he noticed the butterfly was struggling so hard to get out and it looked like the butterfly wasn’t going to be able to break free!
The little boy was so worried for the butterfly that he decided he had to help. He quickly got a pair of scissors and snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!
But the butterfly had a swollen body and small shriveled wings.
The little boy sat and watched the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, get bigger and expand to support the swollen body.
But it never happened!
The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It never was able to fly…
He then 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. The boy’s good intentions actually hurt the butterfly.
Moral: “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.”
