Not so long ago a young boy found a cocoon of an emperor moth in his pathway on the way home from school. Excited, he took the cocoon straight home and placed it safely in his bedroom in the hope that he'd be able to watch it come out of its cocoon when the time was right.  Sure enough, one day a small opening started to appear in the cocoon as he patiently sat still and watched it for several hours in the hope of watching it transform into a beautiful butterfly.

Alas, after what seemed like more time than he could possibly bear, the moth stopped struggling to get its body through the small hole it had initially created and just sat motionless in the eyes of the young boy. In his mind it had stopped making any progress whatsoever and had gone as far as it was going to get. Consumed by both sadness and kindness in equal measure though, he decided to give the moth a helping hand.  So, he took a pair of scissors, and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

That done; the moth then emerged from the hole as easily as could be albeit with a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. Undeterred, the young boy continued to watch the moth safe in the knowledge that at any moment the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Alas, neither of these things 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.  You see, what the young boy failed to realize at the time was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle needed to get free from it, was God's loving way of forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings, thereby enabling it to fly.  Freedom and flight would only come after the struggle.

Through his kindness and haste the young boy had deprived the moth of a struggle; and ultimately of good health.  God always has a plan you see, and oftentimes struggles, obstacles and delays are put in our path for a higher good that we can't always see at the time.

If we were to go through our life without these little speed bumps as it were, we would be far less equipped to soar and fly when the time was right. We would not be as strong as we need to be in order to fly in the first place.  That is why we must strife to give every opportunity a proper chance before rushing to haste decisions and/or judgments. 

Try to leave as little room as possible for personal regrets and never lose sight of the fact that there is indeed a lot of power in struggle.