One day a man found a cocoon (茧) of a butterfly (蝴蝶) in the forest. He sat there several hours and watched the butterfly. Suddenly a small opening appeared, and the butterfly made its great effort to forces 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 further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He cut off the remaining bit of the cocoon so that the butterfly could come out easily. But to his surprise, the butterfly got a heavy body and very small wings when it came out of the cocoon.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that the body would grow smaller at any moment and the wings would become larger and be able to fly. But neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling (爬) around with a heavy body and small wings. It was never able to fly.

The man was in his kindness, but he did not understand the nature rules. Before the butterfly came out of the cocoon, fluid (流体) from its body must be forced into its wings, and then it would be ready for flying. It must have a hard struggle (拼搏) to get through the small opening to get its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any difficulties, it would make us fail. We would not be as strong as we could have been; we could never fly.

“I will think of it.” It is easy to say this, but do you know what great things have come from thinking?

Sir Isaac Newton was sitting in his garden when he saw an apple fall from a tree. He began to think and tried to find out why the apple fell. Then he discovered how the sun, moon, and stars are kept in their places.

A boy named James Watt sat quietly by the fire, watching the lid of the kettle (水壶盖) move up and down. He wanted to find out why the steam in the kettle moved the lid. From that time he went on thinking and thinking. And when he became a man, he improved the steam engine (蒸汽机) so much that it could easily do the work of many horses.

James Ferguson was a poor boy. Once, seeing the inside of a watch, he wondered. “Why should I not make a watch?” But how could he get the materials to make the mainspring (钟表的主发条)? He soon found he could make it with whalebone (鲸骨). He then made a wooden clock which kept good time. His motto (座右铭) was “I will think of it.” And he made his thoughts useful to himself and the world.

Boys and girls, when you have a difficult lesson to learn, don’t lose heart, and don’t ask someone for help before helping yourselves. Think, and by thinking you will learn how to think to some purpose.

I walked into a restaurant and ordered some food. After about 20 minutes, a large group of people came in and took their own orders.

I felt disappointed ( 失望) because the group got served before me. I watched as they began to eat and laugh loudly. I heard one of them bragging (吹嘘) about how he knew someone who works at the restaurant. Unable to stand it anymore, I decided to leave. I asked the waiter to cancel (取消) my order angrily.

He told me nicely, “Yours is a special order. The head chef is preparing it himself. It’ll take a little more time. Please have a drink while you wait.”

I calmed down and waited patiently (耐心地). A few minutes later, my meal was served by six waiters.

To my surprise, the owner of the restaurant was a long-lost friend of mine. He saw me walking in and decided to surprise me. He turned my simple meal into a five-star meal for free. The people at the other table were shocked and couldn’t stop looking at me. They asked angrily why they didn’t get that kind of service.

Such is life! Some people go ahead of you, laughing at you and talking about how they are smarter, better and luckier than you, while you are working hard day and night, wondering why it’s taking so long for you to get reward (奖励) like them.

You just have to wait longer because your reward is more special.