In this episode, we explore the remarkable parallels between the stages of diamond cutting and our spiritual growth. I share some of my own experiences of detachment during the early years of marriage and motherhood. They taught me invaluable lessons about the nature of faith—its ability to endure, adapt, and ultimately illuminate.
I take you through the six transformative stages of diamond cutting, drawing insights into how each phase of adversity, surrender, and refinement shapes our character and faith. From the initial challenges that help cut away the excess and imperfections, to the final polish where our true purpose gleams with clarity, every step is a testament to God's masterful craftsmanship.
This episode is an invitation to reflect on the beauty of our spiritual journey, recognizing that every hardship and act of humility is purposefully designed by God. Through prayer, service, and a life of surrender, we not only refine our faith but also become vibrant reflections of Christ's love.
Whether facing your wilderness of adversity or simply seeking inspiration to deepen your spiritual walk, this narrative promises to uplift and encourage. Let's embark on this journey together, discovering the beauty in the process and the divine purpose that outshines even the brightest gem.
I'm here for you. I'm praying for you. You are NOT alone!
Please subscribe to this podcast so you won't miss a thing!
In this episode, we explore the remarkable parallels between the stages of diamond cutting and our spiritual growth. I share some of my own experiences of detachment during the early years of marriage and motherhood. They taught me invaluable lessons about the nature of faith—its ability to endure, adapt, and ultimately illuminate.
I take you through the six transformative stages of diamond cutting, drawing insights into how each phase of adversity, surrender, and refinement shapes our character and faith. From the initial challenges that help cut away the excess and imperfections, to the final polish where our true purpose gleams with clarity, every step is a testament to God's masterful craftsmanship.
This episode is an invitation to reflect on the beauty of our spiritual journey, recognizing that every hardship and act of humility is purposefully designed by God. Through prayer, service, and a life of surrender, we not only refine our faith but also become vibrant reflections of Christ's love.
Whether facing your wilderness of adversity or simply seeking inspiration to deepen your spiritual walk, this narrative promises to uplift and encourage. Let's embark on this journey together, discovering the beauty in the process and the divine purpose that outshines even the brightest gem.
I'm here for you. I'm praying for you. You are NOT alone!
Please subscribe to this podcast so you won't miss a thing!
Welcome to the Catholic Subriety Podcast, the go-to resource for women seeking to have a deeper understanding of the role alcohol plays in their lives, women who are looking to drink less or not at all for any reason. I am your host, christy Walker. I'm a wife, mom and a Joyfield Catholic, and I am the Catholic Subriety Coach, and I am so glad you're here. I was in class the other day. I'm a student at Encounter School of Ministry and the presenter that was there asked us to just take a moment and talk to God and ask him how he sees our faith or how he wants our faith to be, and as I reflected in prayer, I heard God tell me I want your faith to be like a diamond.
Speaker 1:
Now I worked in the jewelry industry for over 15 years and after that I even wrote for jewelers. I did digital marketing for jewelers, wrote product descriptions and all of those things. So jewelry is something, especially gemstones. I just love gemstones. I'm not a great buyer of it, but I am a great admirer of just gemstones in general and diamonds. And so I thought, well, that's probably just me imparting what I love into what I think God is asking. But the more I thought of it, the more I realized God was telling me I want your faith to be like a diamond. I want it to be strong, I want it to be beautiful, I want it to be durable, but most of all, I want you to allow me to create facets in you that are going to reflect the light of Christ to those around you. And that visual was so meaningful to me and he knew what would be. It was so meaningful to me and actually I was struggling a bit with a talk that I was writing on Detachment, which I gave a few weeks ago, and I was struggling with what to say, like nobody wants to hear me talk about Detachment and like you should be doing this and you should be doing that and all of those things. But I thought you know, if I can compare God to a master diamond cutter who is helping to create facets of faith, using our efforts to detach from things that keep us from him, and with the sacrifices we make during Lent and during all different times of our life, if I can make that comparison, I think it could be beautiful and meaningful to the women that I'm going to be talking to. And so I began writing and I couldn't stop and I was so excited I was just filled with this excitement of being able to convey this message using my own experiences and my knowledge of diamonds and gemstones, and the faith that has grown, my faith that has grown, thanks be to God and just allowing him to use me and to pour into me his grace and sisters. That's what I want to talk to you about today, because you are a diamond and God is creating facets of faith through your detachment and your sacrifice as well.
Speaker 1:
Now start with an example from my own life. When my husband and I first got married, we had to learn of detachment right, because the two are becoming one. You're learning to give, you're learning to receive and it's, you know, just something that happens with newlywed couples. And the other thing that I had to learn to detach from was this thought that we were gonna get married and we were going to conceive a child right away, and it took us longer, much longer than we had hoped. But after years of trying, we learned that God's timing is always perfect and we were blessed with twins.
Speaker 1:
Now, I always wanted to be home with my children. I always did Like when I was a young girl, people would ask me like what do you want to be when you grow up? And I would just say I want to be a wife and a mom. And of course I didn't go over super well in the 80s, you know, with women's empowerment and you don't need a man. Women can do everything. A man can do even better and all of those messages that I was getting.
Speaker 1:
But I really, at my very core, wanted to be home with my children and I didn't think it was going to be possible for us. I did the math and I was like I'm going to have to go back to work. And I remember my boss's dad, who he was retired but he would come in and out of the jewelry store several times a week. But I remember him telling me you're not going to want to come back here after you have those babies. And I was like, oh yeah, I've got double the diapers and all of these things and we're going to need this money. And of course I'm going to come back to work. And he would just every once in a while slip that in there, like I don't think you're going to want to come back. And I knew he was right, but I didn't want to even allow myself to dare hope that that would be a possibility.
Speaker 1:
However, when I was 20, about 26 weeks pregnant with my twins, I ended up being put on bed rest because they tried to make a break for it early, and so I was prescribed bed rest. I was able to get up to shower, I was able to get up to make myself like a sandwich, and then I pretty much have to drink a ton of water and lay in bed, and they wanted me mostly to lay on lay in bed on my side. So that's where I spent three months, and during that time I also learned about detachment. Right, I learned about detaching from how I thought my pregnancy was going to go. I had to detach from the ability to just do all those things and prepare in the ways that I wanted to do when I was pregnant, because I wasn't able to. I had to also detach from some of my self-reliance of I'll do it myself. And my mom offered to come in and clean our house, because this was a big thing for my husband. He was taking care of me, he was taking care of our yard, he was taking care of the house and going to work in a very stressful job and that he loved. But you know it's a lot of stress and my mom so thoughtfully offered to clean our house and I had to just let go of my pride and say okay, because I knew it would be helpful to my husband and to me.
Speaker 1:
So after the three months of being on bed rest, I'm happy to report that my twins were born at just over 38 weeks, which is great for twins, and I had them and I was still planning on going back to work. I had set up with one of my friends that she was going to. She had a daycare and so she was going to watch them and yeah, I just was prepared for that. But just the more time I spent with them, the more I was home with them. I just couldn't bear the thought of not being with them. I couldn't bear the thought of someone else getting to have all those sweet moments with them, maybe see some of their firsts that I wouldn't get to see because I was at work and I talked to my husband about it and I'm like really we would be paying I mean we would be making a little bit more money but honestly I would be going to work to pay for someone else to raise our children. And so my husband agreed yes, you should stay home with the kids.
Speaker 1:
But making the decision for me to stay home meant that we lost half our income, because at that time I was actually making the same amount as my husband and in making this decision we had to let go of so many things that we had kind of become accustomed to being a dual income household without children. Like we ate out, we just kind of did what we wanted and bought what we wanted and didn't really plan things. We didn't budget, we didn't plan meals or anything like that and, honestly, things were okay at first. But then a bigger session hit and my husband's hours were cut dramatically. So that meant we not only lost half of our income from me staying home with our boys, but we lost some of my husband's income because his hours were cut and things became exceptionally tight for our family and we had to pare down. And then we'd have to pare down some more and then, just when I thought that we had pared down enough, we had to tighten our belts even more. So that meant no cable, that meant I had to have a meal plan. I started making the boys' baby food and we had to have a budget and I hated that.
Speaker 1:
I also started clipping coupons. This was during the time of the extreme couponing era, which I guess was great because there were blogs and shows and people telling you how to get the most from your coupons and make your dollar stretch further. So I had a binder full of coupons. I always ended up with a bunch of stuff I didn't need, but it didn't matter because I got it for free. So I was always really proud of my big grocery halls when I would use coupons and during that time we often focused on the things we didn't have or things we didn't get to do. But as I look back, I mean there was so much joy just watching my children laugh and play and sing and dance, and all the hugs and all the love like no amount of money or luxuries could ever compare to that.
Speaker 1:
During those years I learned that letting go of financial security and things I just thought we had to have and just trusting that we were making the best decision for our family ended up being so worth it. So why I'm telling you this is that I'm trying to illustrate how letting go of things that aren't serving us or are meant for us will allow God to grind away the excess and help us detach and become more of who he created us to be. In this sacrifice and this detachment, he is creating facets that enable our faith to reflect Christ's light into the world, and that's why the process of diamond cutting just makes so much sense to me, and I hope that it helps you too. Now, you probably don't know a lot about the process of diamond cutting Thankfully I do and so I'm going to explain to you how, when we consider God as our master diamond cutter, who shapes our faith, using our sacrifices, sufferings, humility and surrender, can help our faith become strong, resilient, and it means that our detachment isn't for nothing, so we can focus on all that we're gaining instead of all that we're giving up.
Speaker 1:
Now, in the process of diamond cutting, there are about six steps. There's planning and cleaving, sawing, brooding, the girdle polishing, inspecting and grading, and then the final touches and setting. So now let's look at each of those steps in relation to our faith and our spiritual lives, with God as our master diamond cutter. So in step one, the planning and cleaving, the master diamond cutter plans. He looks at the rough diamond. Now I don't know if you've ever seen rough diamonds before. But they're not much to look at, they don't really reflect light and if you saw one, you probably you know it looks a little different than other rocks, so you might think that it was cool or interesting. But it's definitely not what a polished, faceted diamond looks like. So the diamond cutter takes this rough stone, looks at it, studies it and plans where to make the right cuts. Now I will tell you that, as a master diamond cutter sets to work, he knows that he's going to lose 50% of the carrot weight of that diamond. So there is some dramatic cutting away that needs to happen in order to bring about the diamonds beauty and radiance and be cut in a way that reflects light and produces brilliance.
Speaker 1:
The master diamond cutter also studies the stone, the rough stone, and looks at it, looks at the imperfections that need to be cleaved away or cut away. And that's what God does for us too. He uses our life experiences, the good ones and the bad ones, to shape us and mold us so that we can reflect the love of Christ into our world. Now we have free will. We're not just an inanimate rough diamond object. So we need to surrender to his plans to allow him to fully work within us and through us.
Speaker 1:
Now the second step is sawing. That sounds terrible, I'm sure. When sawing you know when we are cutting things away it is difficult. But God uses those difficult times to refine our character, to cut away those impurities and detachments that are not serving us, and it allows him to shape us into the people he created us to be his lights in the world, to bring hope and healing to others. And he does that by working in us first and transforming us from the inside out. The third step is brooding the girdle. So if you look at a diamond, you will notice a very thin line like around that separates the top part of the diamond and the bottom part. That's the crown and the pavilion, and it's this very smooth line that goes around separating those two parts.
Speaker 1:
And in the Christian life, moments of humility and surrender allow God to also round and shape our hearts and our spirits. But we have to be willing to allow him to mold us. We need to become meek, we need to become humble. Go back and listen to my podcast episode with Roxanne DeVira. We talk about meek and humble there. If you aren't sure how to do that she does a great job of explaining it, but truly what we are doing is becoming more aligned with his purpose and capable of then reflecting his light, his love, his mercy and compassion into the world.
Speaker 1:
The fourth step is polishing. Now, as we surrender to God, our hearts and minds just become more reflective of his light. But how does that happen? It's because God is continually, continually refining and polishing our faith through our experiences, through our prayer, through our spiritual growth, through all the ways that we serve others and serve the church, when we use our spiritual gifts, when we use our charisms. All of that is a polishing that helps us to radiate Christ's love to others. The fifth step is inspection and grading. Can you guess what this has to do with Self-examination, confession and accountability. Now, as we seek the Lord's forgiveness and his guidance, we will grow and spiritually mature, and when we do that, it's so much easier to hear his voice and align our will to his and live out our purpose and even know what our purpose is.
Speaker 1:
The sixth step is final touches and setting. This represents God's continued work in our lives. As long as we are on this earth, god is going to be continually working in us, and because we are human and because we are predisposed to sin, we are going to keep coming up against temptations. We're going to keep coming up against things, and he knows this. And he will continue to work in our lives, adding the finishing touches to our faith, and he will set us in positions to shine his light into the world. That's why it's so important to be open and obedient to his promptings, because he will lead us where we need to go.
Speaker 1:
In my life, I call them holy breadcrumbs, and I can look where I am now and look where I was, and I can see all along the way, even from my earliest days and my earliest memories, people that he put in my life, situations, events and things that have led me to him and led me to do what I'm doing today and will lead me to where he leads me in the future. So, in this light, the analogy of diamond cutting beautifully illustrates how God, as our master diamond cutter, uses our sacrifices, our sufferings, our humility and surrender to fashion our faith into sparkling, beautiful diamonds that radiate Christ into the world and draw souls to him. Now, sometimes we surrender willingly and joyfully, and other times we don't have any choice. But here's the good thing. God uses it all. He uses it all.
Speaker 1:
Now, if we go back to my story and the example that I began with, those financially trying years were so difficult. I felt like I was being emptied. I felt like I was being stretched, but it led me to what I'm doing today. I had to be willing to let go of the work that I love to do. My husband and I had to accept the financial sacrifices that came with that decision and because of that, our family gained so much. If we had held tight to those things, if we had held so tight to it out of fear, we might not be where we are today. We might not have what we have today, we may not know what we know today and we may not have relied on God the way that we do today and how much we need Him and try our very best to put Him at the center of our lives and our family. Had that not happened and we had been holding so tight to the worldly things, to the fear of letting go, we may have missed out.
Speaker 1:
The desire that I had in those years and the necessity for additional income gave me the courage to start a freelance writing business, and the Lord just kept leading me and giving me the fortitude and the wisdom and knowledge and promptings that I needed. And I began using my love of writing and my jewelry experience to help others and make extra money for my family while being home with my kids. And this business branched off into social media management for jewelers and for funeral homes. That's a whole other story. Maybe I'll tell it sometime. And I grew and grew and grew until the Lord called me to sobriety coaching.
Speaker 1:
So you never have to stay stuck, you never have to feel like you're failing, because detachment is a lifelong process. So if you have realized that drinking has become a problem for you, if you are realizing that it is stealing precious moments from your life, from your motherhood, if it is making it so that you are numbing not just the bad but the joy, if it's taking your ability to cope with situations in healthy ways because it seems like it's so easy just to grab that bottle instead of turning to the one who loves you most, the creator of your soul, the creator of your being, then it may be time for you to make a change, detaching from something that makes you feel like you are tied to it or enslaved by it or trapped by it, is a very good thing. When we detach from something, it's not that we are depriving ourselves, it's that we are making room for God to give us something even better. When we empty our hands at the foot of the cross and we stand there before God and we say I trust you and we let go of fear and we let Him fill us, that is where transformation will occur. That is precisely where God will take our detachments and our sacrifice and create beautiful, smooth facets of faith that will reflect His light into the world.
Speaker 1:
If you want extra support and accountability to someone to talk to about your goals or work with you to formulate a goal and help you break that down into smaller, more attainable steps, then I provide one-on-one coaching. You can always schedule a call with me. Just go to my website the Catholic sobriety coach and I provide a 30-minute chat where we can talk about your goals. You will leave there, whether you decide to work with me or not, knowing what your next steps are, and I will provide other resources for you as well in that call.
Speaker 1:
I also have my Sacred sobriety lab. It is just about out of the beta phase. We are working through a couple kinks, but it is available, it is working and you can get that. It is a lab that makes the process of discovering the level of sobriety that is right for you a holy work so that you can dedicate it to God. There is so much in there to help you and to support you. I have options that include someone-on-one coaching sessions or you can just do the lab. If you just want a free resource, I have that in the show notes below. Grab my guide, which is called Drink Less or Not at All a Catholic Guide to Freedom, in that I have tools that I actually use with my coaching clients, as well as some questions you can ask yourself after you have maybe over consumed alcohol or consumed alcohol when you didn't intend to, just so that you can look at it from a place not of shame or judgment, but with curiosity, and it will help you formulate a plan for next time that situation arises. So, again, I have one-on-one coaching, my sacred sobriety lab and the free Drink Less or Not at All Guide and, of course, this podcast.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for listening. Well, that does it for this episode of the Catholic sobriety podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I would invite you to share it with a friend, who might also get value from it as well, and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a thing. I am the Catholic sobriety coach, and if you would like to learn how to work with me or learn more about the coaching that I offer, visit my website, thecatholicsobrietycoachcom. Follow me on Instagram at theCatholic sobriety coach. I look forward to speaking to you next time, and remember I am here for you. I am praying for you. You are not alone.