If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Frederick Douglass

In Happy, Texas, our biggest rival has been a team located 25 miles away in Nazareth. The Nazareth girls have won 17 State basketball titles - more than any other team in America. The boys team has also won its share of state titles in recent years. For some, it would be just fine if Nazareth were in a completely different state instead of in the same district as our hometown of Happy, but I am convinced that this competition has made us better - both as a basketball team and as people.

Why is that, you might wonder? It is because of the importance of the struggle.

It is the struggle to get out of the cocoon that gives the wings of the Monarch butterfly the strength to fly 3,000 miles. Any attempt to "help" the butterfly by tearing open its cocoon would ease its struggle, but would also render it incapable of flying even a few feet.  It's the struggle of tearing through its shell, digging out of the sand and racing to the water that gives the great sea turtle its strength to swim vast oceans. Take away the struggle and you would steal a vital step to its being able to survive and thrive.

Too often, we as parents want to remove the struggle from our children's lives. From the coaches that demand excellence to the teachers who demand perfection, we are quick to rush to our "babies" rescue. By doing so, we often doom them to mediocrity, for it is the struggle that makes them strong. Now, I am not suggesting for a moment that we put up with abusive or unreasonable behavior in the methods of our coaches and teachers and parents. What I am suggesting though is that we not only tolerate the struggle , but that we encourage it as well, for the struggle is one of the key ingredients in any recipe for excellence and high achievement.

Incidentally, don't you think that God recognizes the importance of the struggle?  Couldn't that be precisely why He built-in the struggle for everything from the Monarch butterfly to the Great Sea turtle? And... might not that be the reason that He allows us to struggle from time to time? Perhaps our loving Father is preparing us for excellence in some great purpose that He has in mind for us.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving us for an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. II Corinthians 4:17, NIV