My husband had a really good parable that he shared with me today when I was having a hard time.   Just to give you some background on what he does, he’s a test engineer for company called Microchip and he writes programs that tests chips to make sure they work according to specifications.

He compared how the circuits in microchips are made in the factory to how the Lord uses adversity to shape and mold us.  

In the factory, circuits are made in layers.  A layer of material is laid down, and then a layer of semi-conductive material is put down on top of that.  Then, a circuit pattern is laid on the material with photoresist, and the circuit-in-progress is put into an acid bath and the acid eats away everything that isn’t part of the pattern.  Multiple layers of circuit are added in this same basic way, over and over again until the whole chip is formed.

The things the Lord asks us to do are like that circuit pattern laid down.  Adversity is like the acid bath; it is designed to etch away from our lives everything that doesn’t belong in the pattern.   If we aren’t obedient, or if we neglect parts of the pattern, then the circuit of our lives is incomplete and will fail. 

UNLIKE microchips, it is wonderful for us that we have the atonement that makes it possible for us to undo errors and do things right so that we aren’t thrown away when we fail.