Changing How We React to Obstacles

I want to cultivate the tenacity of a well-known delicate-winged creature. I’m talking butterflies and I’m talking migration.

This isn’t some post about wanderlust or an insatiable desire to pack my things and hightail it to the Florida Keys because my nose runs every time I step outside. No, I’m referring to what it takes to push through when the winds kick up and food becomes sparse. Gusty gales and times of hunger come for all of us, though they’re disguised differently. A rush of wind knocks us flat on our faces when we lose a job or a loved one. Hunger pangs are triggered in times of loneliness or whenever our vision grows cloudy. 

This is why I admire the Monarch’s innate ability to survive—their propensity to endure.

Monarchs are known for powering through a myriad of obstacles, including seasonal snow cover, adverse weather conditions like strong winds and extreme heat, sandstorms, unsuitable habitat, hostile landscapes, and lack of food sources to name just a few.

In case you’re nodding and saying to yourself, “Sure, Wendy, we all want to grow stronger in this area,” let me give you a few more things to think about.

Migrating butterflies adjust. They adjust to their circumstances—to their surroundings.

And yet remarkably, they stay on course. They refuse to allow obstacles to become deterrents. Despite the fact that no single individual makes the round trip, (meaning each flight is entirely new for them) Monarchs handle change with incredible finesse. It’s as though they anticipate complications, quickly acknowledging them, then regardless of what tries to alter their flight, Monarchs fly on.

As I did a little research I read that the Monarch’s flight pattern is not affected by the wind.

Which brings me to these two verses…

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching…” Ephesians 4:14

“But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” James 1:6

I’d love for my faith and my commitment to trust to mimic these resilient, beautiful creatures. Certain. Not dismissive of or ignorant to obstacles on my path, but sure and steady despite them.

Has something in nature ever reminded you of who you want to be?

*I also read Monarchs have milkweed in their bodies which is poisonous to most predators looking for a lovely-winged meal. But their wings say back off. Predators spot their wings and receive a ‘don’t mess with me attitude’ in any altitude. Wonder if having the Word in us and “flying” in its strength is like being swollen full of milkweed in the eyes of our enemy? May our wings show it.

**received butterfly info. here & photo by stock.XCHNG