Molting is a normal process for caterpillars. As they grow, they must molt (shed their old skin) to grow larger. If they do not molt they will die.
Sometimes a caterpillar will start to molt but some of the old cuticle (skin) will stick. Usually, when it doesn't properly molt, it will die.
If a caterpillar doesn't molt at all, it will die due to restriction all over it's body. It is totally bound up in it's 'old self'.
Sometimes the skin will cause a restricted area around it's body. As the caterpillar grows, the circle of old skin restricts one area of its body. That one area stays the same circumference. In time, it cannot function properly and will die.
The arrow in the above photo indicates an area where skin stayed completely around the caterpillar. It is restricted and cannot grow at this point. The front and back of the caterpillar will grow, but it will have a 'waist', not how God designed caterpillars!
If you look at only the front part or rear part of this caterpillar, it would look normal.
I wonder; is that how I am? Does my character look 'normal' when people only look at part of me? What is restricting me in one area that is keeping me from functioning as God intended? Or are there several rings of things I have let bind me in areas?
As I look back over my life, I see where I did shed things that once restricted me.
One of those things is that as long as I am concerned with what God thinks of me, I have learned to not care what others think in certain situations. Sometimes obeying God makes others think badly of us. I have learned to let go of concern about how I appear to people and instead be concerned about what God thinks of me and also how I reflect God to others.
