Violet Shinbach needed a way to help support her family. The year was 1934—smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression. Was that a good time to risk starting a new business? It sure didn’t seem like it! But Violet had to do something. Besides, she had an idea.

She wondered: What kinds of things might parents always want to keep? What would they want to always remember? How about the tiny shoes their toddlers took their first steps in? Violet went door-to-door. She looked for young mothers who might want what she was selling: bronzed baby shoes.

Her business took off. The Bron-Shoe Company was bronzing 2,000 shoes a day by the early 1970s. But the tradition of keeping that first pair of tiny shoes fell out of favor—until now. Bronzed baby shoes are making a comeback!

Robert Kaynes Jr. is Violet’s grandson. He doesn’t think bronzing went out of style. “Nobody knew we were there,” he says. To fix this problem, the company tried selling their service online. It worked. Now 30 employees ship about 100 pairs of bronzed shoes a day. Prices start at $79.95 per pair.

Now the company bronzes more than shoes. Baby pacifiers? Check. Golf balls? Check. Dog collars, ballet slippers? Check, check. Whatever customers find sentimental is fair game.

The Apostle Paul knew hard times. He wrote about them. In Romans 5:3-4 he said that hardship “produces endurance, and endurance produces character.” Times were hard when Violet started the Bron-Shoe Company. Times have been hard since. But the company has endured through three generations.

God made us to endure too. But Romans 5 has a reminder for us. If we’re believers, endurance and character is not something we do on our own. It happens because the Holy Spirit is at work in us!