Obstacles are there to Help You

 An Essay by Steve Michaels

My daughter purchased an aquarium of tadpoles for my grandchildren to watch grow into frogs. There was a big rock in the middle of the tadpole’s environment, and I asked why.  It was hard to believe I had never heard this story, because it’s so good.

She said the gentleman at the store told her to be sure to put a big rock right in the middle of the aquarium.  The tadpoles must have this obstacle to give them       incentive to climb up and thus split their wiggly little tails so that their legs can begin to develop.  If they have no rock or obstacle to climb up on, they will never turn into frogs.  They cannot learn to hop by just swimming around in the           water.  They must have something causing resistance to give them incentive to leap forward.

The man explained that last year a school teacher came back to the store and complained because none of her tadpoles had turned into frogs.  He asked her if she had put a rock in the aquarium; but she had not.  She didn’t know a tadpole will remain a tadpole unless it faces some obstruction or barrier that forces it to grow.  Neither did I, but it makes perfect sense.  In time, my daughter’s tadpoles will begin to try to climb up on it and eventually they will make the transformation into a more fully mature creature.

I was amazed and delighted to hear that story.  It helped me begin to see, once again, why we have obstacles and barriers in front of us.  They are not there to hinder us, but they are there to cause us to grow.  What the object is doesn’t matter as much as our attitude towards it.  If we realize that the challenge we are facing is really a gift that has come our way to help us grow and mature, we will be much more likely to face it in a positive manner.

Since I watched those tadpoles swim around that big rock in their aquarium, I have begun to see the obstacles I face in a different way.  Instead of being rocks in my path, those obstacles have become stepping-stones to help me leap forward in whatever situation I find myself.

Those little tadpoles have no idea what is going on, and neither do we.  We don’t understand that the obstacles, challenges, difficulties and hard times that come our way each day actually have a purpose.  We would never have the incentive to grow, or to become better, or to strive harder, if everything in life had a simple situation.  I know the harder I work at anything, the more profitable it is for me not only financially, but personally, in my own heart and character as well.

So, the next time you see a frog, thank him for the lesson, remembering the struggle he has gone through to get where he is.  Out in the wild somewhere, he faced a difficult rock or barrier in his life, but rather than swimming away, he crawled up on it and began to develop his personal strength until he eventually matured to become the frog that you see hopping around on land.