Are you expecting too much?

Over the weekend, a butterfly landed on my hand.

It was small. And blue. And beautiful. And it was a reminder to me about the metamorphosis that God creates in a girl's life.

I did a little research, probably little of which is very interesting to anyone but a factoid nerd like me. But, for the purposes of this blog (which really does have a purpose), you need to know that the average lifespan of a monarch butterfly is about 56 days. Less than two months. And of that two months, that butterfly spends 10 days in the pupa stage—the stage in which a catepillar is transformed from the wiggly worm into a graceful flyer.

Ten days in butterfly life is about 20% of its lifespan. Remember that.

Then I did a little research into the average lifespan...78 years. Twenty percent of that lifespan is 15+ years. So if a girl lives to be about 78 years of age, over 15 years of her lifespan will be spent in that all-important pupa stage—spiritually speaking.

So why do we get so disappointed when girls make mistakes?

Sometimes I wonder if we expect too much of girls. Metamorphosis takes time. It's not an overnight event. It's a process for both butterflies and people.

What's also interesting (for a nerd like me) is that some species of butterflies can stay in their chrysalis cocoon for up to seven years. The point? Maturation is an individual process. And it can take a LONG time.

Think about your own spiritual life. Aren't there areas of your spiritual life that God is still working on? So why do we offer more grace for ourselves in our growth process than we sometimes offer to girls who are struggling with their own growth?

It's something to think about.