A wise man once said “experience is what we get when we don’t get what we want.” We have all had our fair share of “experiences” I am sure. When I was fairly new as an insurance agent, I was given the opportunity to open an office and build a team of insurance agents in East Tennessee. My division sales leader was a man by the name of Perry Quinn from Atlanta. He was number one in our company and a great mentor when I certainly needed it most. One day very frustrated that my team of insurance agents was not growing like I believed they should, he sent me a simple little story. This story was so profound I keep it until this day 17 years later. It reminds me life is not perfect, and sometimes it’s the struggles that I need to condition myself to get my insurance business to the next level. I wanted to share it in my blog.

The story goes “a man found a cocoon of a butterfly that he began to watch and study. One day a small opening appeared in the end of the cocoon. He sat and watched for hours as the butterfly struggled to force its body through the tiny little hole. Then it just seemed to have stopped making any progress at all. It appeared as if it had got as far as it could and it could go no farther.

The man decided he would help the butterfly to keep going. He took out a pair of scissors and carefully snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then easily emerged from the cocoon. However, its body was badly swollen and its wings were shriveled.  The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand large enough to support the swollen body and the body would contract over time. Unfortunately neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its short life just crawling around swollen with shriveled wings until it died.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand, was the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny hole, 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. What seemed to be an act of mercy was ultimately the demise of the butterfly“—-Unknown

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. Don’t question “why me” as if you are being punished. Realize it is God’s way to prepare you for something greater and more beautiful than you can comprehend at that present time.

“Struggle is proof that you haven’t been conquered, that you refuse to surrender, that victory is still possible, and that you’re growing.” ― Jon Walden

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Tim Wilhoit is owner/principal of Your Friend 4 Life Insurance Agency in Nashville, TN. He is a family man, father of 3, entrepreneur, insurance agent, life insurance broker, salesman, sales trainer, recruiter, public speaker, blogger and team leader with over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing in the insurance and beverage industries.