art, Uncategorized

Design for Life – Contrast

© Caryn’s Corner Btq 2023

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2(ESV)

One thing I have learned from Bob Ross is to show dark you need light and to show light you need dark. That struck a chord in me and always stuck with me. When I want something to stand out in a piece of art I highlight it. I can highlight an already light color by placing dark colors around it. Our lives need to be highlighted in a way that we stand out from the rest of the world. When we follow Jesus and walk closely with Him, those characteristics begin to show and we begin to live them out, others will start to see that there is something different in us, something different about us.

When we as Christians start to live conformed to God’s word our lifestyle begins reflect how God desires for us to live. We can live out the Gospel by helping others, doing something “for the least of these,” Matthew 25:40, loving our neighbor as ourselves; Mark 12:31, love your enemies and do good to those who hate you; Luke 6:27-36. When others see us do these hard things, when others see us loving the unlovely, when others can’t understand the peace we have amidst the chaos of today’s world, when they see us and they just don’t understand what’s different. Then we know we are living in contrast to the world. Even when others are rejecting us for what we believe, we can be assured they see a contrast.

When it comes to attracting or highlight something in a piece of art, adding contrast can be a pretty important principle. I found this definition of contrast, “Contrast Paired with Unity:  Contrast can be a matter of arranging opposite elements (light versus dark, rough versus smooth, large versus small) within an artist’s piece, when the artist is working specifically to echo and repeat different levels of unity. In such artwork, contrasts can be paired colors which are chromatic opposites: in a work strictly adhering to unity those colors would be complementary. When the artist uses contrasting paired shapes such as two circles of different sizes, or a triangle and a star of the same size, contrast can be seen as opposite but partnered with the element of unity.”(https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-contrast-in-art-182430

How cool is that??? Think about it for a minute. Where else do we see contrast? And where opposites can compliment? Within the body of Christ we can be unified through contrast!!! 1 Corinthians 12:12, “There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ.” (NIRV)  “Contrasting paired shapes… can be seen as opposite but partnered with the element of unity.” We can still be who God created us to be no matter how different we are. In the world we will be seen as a contrast. In the body of Christ we can be unified and compliment each other. We can still have unity within the body of Christ. When the world sees how we as Christians are the same but different still living in unity as one body in Christ we can be the highlight, the contrast the world needs to see.

© Caryn’s Corner Btq 2021

prayer, Uncategorized

Devotionals

Photo by Thought Catalog on Pexels.com

Reading God’s Word daily is essential to the Christian life. It’s our lifeline. Reading the God breathed words in the Bible is one way God communicates to us. Praying is talking to God and without prayer and daily communication with God… how does that relationship survive? How do we cope?

Our quiet time, devotionals, Bible study, time with God, whatever you call it looks different for everyone. Some are morning people, some are before bed people, some mid day people. I don’t think it really matters what time of day, just that we “get away often” as Jesus did. Luke 5:16 “But Jesus often went away to be by himself and pray.” The Bible doesn’t say what time of day or for how long, just often.

Now my point here is if you are in the habit daily of getting away and setting time for God, how many times have you said, or heard someone say, “my day just doesn’t go right if I don’t start my day with my devotional” or perhaps something similar. Well, what about the just before bed people? Does that carry over into the day for them? Will their sleep not go well? What about the morning people, will their sleep not go well?

Often times when we get up and hit the floor running, we sometimes don’t have time for a devotional and the day gets away from us and the day seems to go sideways, the car breaks down, sick kid at school, boss got crazy, lose your keys, computer crashes and you think, “see, I didn’t do my devotional.” Well, have you had days when you did your devotional and the day still went bad? I know I have countless times. And here is where I think the difference is; regardless what time of day we choose to spend time with God, life is going to happen. The car will break down, the kids, will get sick, the day can go sideways regardless. God is not punishing us by making the day hard and things braking down because we didn’t spend time with Him. He may use those things to remind us or use them in some way for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). But I know there have been days I have spent time reading and praying and the day still sideways.

So, often it’s easy for me to attach a superstition to this and that’s just another subtle tactic of Satan to get us to feel guilty, like we are a bad Christian, or his popular lie, you’re a failure. God sees your heart. He’s not ready to beat you down with a bad day if you skip or miss time with Him. He never leaves us or forsakes us, (there are many verses about God always being with us, Google it) He is always waiting for us to come to Him. Sure you’re likely to feel a void or an emptiness because you’ve been out of synch but being aware and just having thoughts of God on your mind can be worship. Because think about it, when we worry and have a problem occupying or hearts weighing us down, thought churning in our heads, we are worshipping the problem. God has thought about us, Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (KJV). The difference is, when we spend time with God, no matter what time, when the car breaks down, when the kids are sick, when the day goes sideways, we handle it better. We have been armed with God’s Word (Ephesians 6:11-15). We deal with problems differently. God’s mercies are new each morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). Your day is going to go the way it’s going to go. God sees it, no surprise to Him. Just try and make it a priority. Priority just means it gets done, not necessarily first, but done. Keep the lines of communication and worship open when your quiet time looks a little different, sing, think about God, think about getting away with Him and then do it.

.

Uncategorized

Happy New Year 2023!!!!

Happy New Year! This is a late post and not a day I usually post. The changes coming to The Kedge Anchor are slow. Decisions are still being made as to how I want to merge my art Caryn’s Corner Boutique and my faith.

I want this site to honor God and reflect His love, salvation, grace, mercy, forgiveness, as well as encourage to anchor in Hope. Through my art I want to inspire others to create and encourage as well. I believe there’s an artist in all of us. We all have a creative side whether you realize it in you or not.

Each day brings us hurdles and bumps we need to navigate and sometimes that takes creative thinking. Trying to figure out how to juggle picking up kids, cooking dinner and getting thru the day can be a work of art as much as working in the garden, baking, sewing, writing or journaling even housework. Yes cleaning and organizing can be a creative endeavor. (Have you seen theYouTube channels out there on organizing and cleaning?) Have you ever wanted to rearrange a room? Takes some creativity to make a home a home. What you do at work takes creativity, how you budget your time, present at meetings, manage employees, motivate employees. Even if you’re a student, you need to mange your time and schedule. Maybe you take lots of notes and are a visual learner, making small doodles in your note to help you remember concepts, it all takes creativity. Into music? Musicians are artists too. Musicians color our world with notes that form a rhythm and pattern making beautiful sounds. Even if you have never composed music, they way you play your instrument, you have your own style.

Just getting dressed every day. You don’t need to buy a new wardrobe to look put together. There are Pinterest boards and Instagram posts and web sits that can inspire you to work with what you already have.

So I need to be creative in a way that these two passions can merge and reflect God and all of Who He is and encourage and inspire others to anchor in Hope.

Uncategorized

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

©CARYNSCORNERBTQ 2022

Thank you to all who have followed me over the past two years! Wow, two years, where has time gone? 2022 is almost done! As we welcome a new year we also welcome changes. I personally don’t like change but I hope the coming changes to the Kedge Anchor will inspire others to continue to walk closer to God and continue to offer hope.

This will be the last post until 2023!! Wow 2023!! God is our only hope for the new year. That is one thing that will never change. Our God is a big God and He is the same yesterday, today and forever. We never need to worry about Him changing.

So just a few changes that you will see, the coloring pages and Memorize Mondays are going away, maybe for awhile, maybe come back looking different, I dunno, haven’t decided. I have decided to combine my art – Caryn’s Corner and The Kedge Anchor. The two are just merging and to make my life simple and hoping to make a bigger impact combing the two made sense. Weekly devotional blogs will stay.

There is some really cool content coming up so please stay tuned. And thank you again to all my followers. Stay anchored in Hope!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Uncategorized

Where is He?

Photo by Mabel Amber on Pexels.com

Happy Friday Eve! Today’s post is a poem that I am proud to share, written by my sister several years ago. It’s hard NOT to see God in anything. Either on the mountain top, in the valley or anywhere in between we can see God if we are open to Him.

In the sunrise,
In the dawn,
In the chill of a frosty morn,
Where is He?


In the sand,
In the sea,
In the waves that beat on me,
Where is He?


In a tiny, feathered wing,
In the choir where angels sing,
In the snow that’s falling fast,
In the towering evergreen,
In a blade of grass that’s barely seen,
Where is He?


In the mind,
In the eye,
In the heart,
He’s quite close by.
He was with Noah in the flood
And on the cross He shed His blood
Quiet, softly He’ll creep in
And wash away the stain of sin.

Gladly He’ll take full control,
If you will let Him in your soul,
So don’t delay.
The time is right.
Won’t you please let Jesus
Become your light?
He’s waiting for you to let Him in,
But you can’t hear Him knocking above the din.
In the quiet…
In the night..
Just let Him in,
The time is right.
He is here!!!!

With permission by Deb Schmeller,

©The Kedge Anchor 2022

Uncategorized

New Facebook Page

The new Facebook page is active. Please be sure to visit, like and share. I started reading The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving Thanks. At the back of the book it has a gratitude challenge and for the month of November to kick off the new Facebook page I will be posting five things for which I am grateful .

If you aren’t on Facebook that’s ok, you can post what you are grateful for here. I am thankful for all who support this blog by following and sharing. Thank you ❤️🍁

Uncategorized

October 31, 2022 – James 3:10

We are all guilty of this. Our tongues have more power than we think. Like anything else we have in this world it can be used for good or bad.

Thinking before we speak, quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger, and asking God for His help in helping be conscious and aware of ourselves. It’s so easy for our fuses to go off and unintentionally hurt someone or God. This takes practice and awareness, but with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26

Uncategorized

God Doesn’t Want Us Happy?

Photo by Jill Wellington on Pexels.com

Recently, I have heard the statement in some form, that God doesn’t want us happy. If so, then what does He want us, sad? The word sullen comes to my mind when I hear this. I find it hard to believe that being happy is not in God’s plan for us. Perhaps what is being said needs a little more, there has to be more to this statement. I do believe God wants more than us to just be happy.

What is happiness? Happiness is an emotion. We need to be in control of our emotions, James 1:19-20 “slow to anger,” Ephesians 4:26-27 – “be angry and sin not.” Happiness is a choice, like love, we can choose who to love, how to love, when to love. We feel the affects of love when someone does something nice for us or is speaking our love language. Much like being offended, when we are offended by something or what someone says, we can feel offended and that’s on us. No one can make us feel a certain way without our permission. I think it was Eleanor Roosevelt who said that. So happiness is an emotion that we can control and is a choice.

There is happiness in obedience and I believe they go hand in hand. Like the song says,”Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.” “When happiness is commanded, happiness is obedience.”

  • The Bible says, “Delight yourself in the Lord” – Psalm 37:4.
  • The Bible says, “Be glad in the Lord” – Psalm 32:11.
  • The Bible says, “Rejoice in the Lord” – Philippians 3:1.
  • The Bible says, “Rejoice always” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16.
  • The Bible says to do your “acts of mercy with cheerfulness” – Romans 12:8.
  • The Bible says, “Serve the Lord with gladness” – Psalm 100:2. (John Piper)

God wants us happy. It’s our choice to be happy about what He asks of us. We can choose to serve with gladness or not.

prayer, Uncategorized

“Please Be with Me”

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

How many times have we all prayed a prayer, “Father, please be with…” I started to think, why do we ask that? We already know that God is omnipresent. Deuteronomy 31:8 “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Jeremiah 23:24 – “Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.”

Think back to the Garden when God came looking for Adam. He was there. Nothing goes unseen by God. So why do we feel the need to ask? Habit perhaps?

So maybe there’s a better way to pray. I realize I don’t need to ask but to recognize whether I feel His presence or not, He is with me. I know this because the Bible says so, so many time throughout scripture. I thank God for His being with me, for His omnipresence, that He will never leave me or forsake me and I acknowledge that He said so in His Word. I thank Him for being with whomever is needing prayer at the moment, because I know He is. He promised to never leave us or forsake us.

If God says this in the Old Testament and repeats it again in the New Testament, then He not only means it but it pertains to us still today. Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

We have a big God. Thank Him for being ever so present.

Coloring Page, Uncategorized

October 17, 2022- Psalm 103:3

Let ALL that I am praise the Lord!