The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

1st Samuel Ch 16 v 7

I though today that I would share something of my faith journey with you and in doing so would also draw from my experiences of making silver cutlery into jewellery.
As you know, I use sterling silver, but the silver content is not the only thing which matters when I choose a piece to make into jewellery. Another important consideration is the way the original piece was made.
I have discovered the hard way that some extremely beautiful and intricate pieces of silver, whilst being sterling, are not strong enough to go through the procedures of heating and bending and hammering which I use to make the jewellery. That is because they were made by the process of casting, where molten silver is poured into a mould. If you look at a set of cast spoons, they will all be exactly the same as they’ve been made in the same mould. But when I work with them, they are much more likely to fracture and break than silver which has been forged, heated and hammered and worked into shape. The forged pieces are rarely as intricate as the cast ones but are much stronger and withstand all the processes I subject them to.

I was raised in a Christian home and taught about God from as soon as I could understand. My parents, grandparents and countless relatives were all members of the Salvation Army and when I was a teenager, I followed into full membership, wearing the uniform and taking part in services. I looked the part of a Christian and a good Salvationist, but once I left home in Ireland and went to university in Scotland, my faith was tested, and found wanting. I looked the part, but it was just a front. The uniform identified me as supposedly a follower of Jesus Christ, but my lifestyle didn’t and within a few years I had given up on God.
Thankfully, He has not given up on me and although it took another thirty years, He kept pursuing me, until I responded out of my own longing for Him. This time my experience was quite different and even brought personal difficulties in significant relationships. But just as the forged piece of silver is made strong by pressure, so it has been with my faith.
I do hope you see the link to the verse from Samuel at the top of this post. I looked like a Christian when I was in my teens and early twenties but once my faith was under pressure, I crumbled. But God doesn’t give up and since I gave my life to Jesus in my early fifties, every pressure and difficulty has made my faith stronger and my love for Him greater.
I do hope this helps someone who may be going through a testing time at the moment as regards their faith or lack of it. Remember if you want to respond in any way, you can email me at the email address below.