Life is Like a Butterfly...

I can truly testify to this quote. My life has been a series of ups and downs. I've gone forward and backwards and side to side. I've ridden the proverbial roller coaster ride and like a ship in a raging storm, I've felt tossed to and fro.

But God!

Thank God for His deliverance! He reached down and tugged at the heart of a six year old little girl who, through tears, believed and accepted Him into her heart. And although it has taken me years to truly mature in Christ, I know He has always been there by my side guiding and protecting me along the way.

This quote also reminds me of one of our recent devotions. Our assignment was to choose new terms of endearment for each other. My husband chose to call me his butterfly. When asked why he chose that term, he said that he had referred to our marriage as a butterfly...

Our marriage is like a butterfly.  The start was ugly but it had to go through its cocoon stage before it became a butterfly. ~Cedric E Lyons, Sr.

I never thought of it like that. That's that deep thinker in him. LOL

But he's right. Do you know that during the metamorphosis of the caterpillar, it actually digests itself before transforming into a butterfly? In comparison, our marriage was ingested, chewed up, and spit out.

We did not value our marriage.

We didn't value each other.

We did not value the covenant we made before God.

We did not respect the Lord or trust that He was in control of everything.

We let go. But we did not let God for a long time.

But then something happened.

We began to truly feast on God's word.

Not only did we feed on it. We began to ingest it and apply the wisdom that was there from the beginning. Through His word, through the people He placed in our lives - our senior pastor, our pastor of counseling, our couples mentors, our spiritual growth group - our eyes were opened to a new understanding of the gift and purpose God had given us through our marriage.

With His word as our guide, with Him as our protector, and with our spiritual family, we were able to let go of fear and push through with courage until finally, we broke through the cocoon and emerged fresh and brand new.

God did that for us.

He turned an ugly caterpillar of a marriage into a soaring, beautiful, majestic marriage that can bring Him honor and glory.

Life is like a butterfly... You go through changes before you become something beautiful.

Never has a quote been so true to life for me as this one. I praise God for everything. Without Him, I would be nothing. With Him, I can spread my wings and fly like a butterfly.