Rescuing Butterflies

I just read a great article; Keeping our Credibility as Parents by Robert Lichfield and I wanted to share part of it that I really needed to hear because I am parent who likes to jump in and rescue my kids:

"The last way in which we damage our credibility is by rescuing our children from their consequences. It's very hard, as parents, not to do that, and it's something we all have to work on.

Watching parents try to rescue their children reminds me of the story of the little boy who watched a butterfly try to break out of a cocoon. He watched as it struggled and fought its way out, and the boy finally decided that it just wasn't going to get out by itself. Finally, out of compassion, the boy helped the butterfly break free. Then he threw it up in the air, where the butterfly flew for a ways, and then fell to the earth and died.

The grandfather who had watched all of this came over to the boy and said, "son, a butterfly needs to exercise its wings to the full extent in getting out of its cocoon. If it doesn't, it doesn't develop the strength it needs, and so it dies."

That's what we do many times when we try to rescue our children from the consequences of their actions. As we try to avoid that tendency, our best example, once again, is God. No one loves us more than God loves us. But He lets us struggle through the cocoons of life until we develop the strength that will carry us through. We must learn to do the same with our own children."