Value & Benefits of Stuggling

The past few weeks have been a real challenge for me - getting bad news, eating terrible, and just feeling depressed. A friend sent me these 2 stories, and I liked them so much I thought I'd share (sorry if they are re-posts):

LIFE IS VALUEABLE

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a 500 dollar bill.
In the room of 200 people, he asked, "Who would like this 500 dollar bill?"
Hands started going up.
He said, "I am going to give this 500 dollar bill to one of you but first let me do this."
He proceeded to crumple the note up.
He then asked, "Who still wants it?"
Still the hands were up in the air.
"Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" and he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it on the floor with his shoe.
He picked it up, now all rumpled and dirty.
"Now who still wants it?".
Still the hands went into the air.
"Dear friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson.
No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value.
It was still worth 500 dollar.
Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground onto the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.
We feel as though we were worthless.
But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.
You are special don't ever forget it!
Life is the most precious asset you have!


BENEFITS OF STRUGGLING

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its 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.
Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily.
But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly 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 butterfly 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 that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were the 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.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.
If we were allowed to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us.
We would not be as strong as what we could have been.
And we could never fly.

(both are "Author Unknown," so if anyone knows the authors please let me know so I can give credit)