So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. -1 Peter 1:6‭-‬7 (NLT)

Watching my five-year-old son listen and learn intently from everything he is taught explicitly and by example, I see a sculpture in the making.

It’s a little nerve-wracking as a parent, to see the amazing responsibility we wield, but also the trust God puts in us, to shape the gift He brought into this world in our kids. Each word and action we take chisels or scrapes at the identity and soul of our kids. Traumatic experiences could even break off whole chunks.

But his life is no different than ours, is it? We’re sculpted by our experiences, with some deep cuts and scars where rough experiences happened, and finely honed edges where finesse was used. *We’re children, too!**

Some of us are more broken than others…maybe even with a trail of rubble in our wake. But God can use exactly that–our brokenness–to do amazing works in and through our lives. He can even mend us!

Like our children, we’re each a work in progress, never done till God says we’re done and we depart this world. Till then, we can trust He will use all of our experiences–good and bad–to His glory.