Do you get frustrated when you’re struggling with something and someone says, “Give it to God,” or “Hand it over to God.?” What does that look like? Me being the visual person I am, being an artist and all, I need to know what that looks like or at least looks like for me. So, I imagine putting all my worries in a box, (probably an Amazon box), wrapping it in brown paper, labeling it “To: God – Worries” decorated with red hearts and tying string around it, then attaching it to an arrow and shooting up to heaven as another package comes down looking the same but labeled, “To Caryn – Peace, with Love, Your Heavenly Father.”

But I think there’s more to that. The visual helps me, but there’s a part B. Sometimes I find myself, usually unaware of myself grabbing and taking it all back from God where the worry and stress start all over again. Then there’s more prayer and I’m really earnest this time and then I decide I’m gonna pray everyday at the same time for this situation or person. That’ll do it!!! And then nothing so I ask others to pray. Not that we shouldn’t but sometimes I think the more prayer lists my prayers are on God is surely gonna hear it and answer it. And we should be persistent. Pray without ceasing, 1 Thessalonians 5:17. But maybe we need to come up for air and take a breath. God hears us, He knows what we need before we ask, Matthew 6:8. Be persistent in prayer, Romans 12:12 and Luke 18:1-8 (this is a parable to show persistence), it’s a general, overall command. It doesn’t say be persistent in giving God your specific worries. (I could be wrong here, so let me know what you think).

So most of my answered prayers have been when I just casually told God what was on my heart and gave Him my request and got so busy with other things, like life and serving and reaching out to others, just carrying on, that’s when I realize my prayer has been answered. Now I’m not saying this is how it is or how it is for everyone, this has just been my observation in my prayer life. But I do think it’s important to surrender our requests our worries to God and I also think that it’s important that we don’t obsess over our requests where they become an idol, “have no other idols before me”, Exodus 20:3.

I look at it this way; it’s tax season, most of us give all our tax info to an accountant, right? An expert, someone who knows what they are doing and are efficient at it, a pro. Most people just drop it off, they trust their accountant, their accountant knows them. So after dropping it off, they may go get coffee, run an errand or two, pick up the kids, go to soccer practice, go home, go bed and then a few days later the accountant calls and your taxes are done right and complete, perfect. Now you may or may not like the outcome. But you surrendered your information, you went about your business and then it was done. Kinda the same with our prayers. We hand them over to God we go about our business and then after a while, in His timing and sovereignty we get an answer. We can still be persistent, we can still ask others to pray, we just can’t make it an idol.

I don’t know what “giving it to God” looks like for you, it might look different. If so leave a comment what that may look like for you. It helped me to think of giving God my worries this way, I hope it helped you.

If this blog has helped you, please like and share and stay tuned at Caryn’s Corner on YouTube, I am working on a new video and can’t wait to share it.

scripture

March 1, 2023

March 2, 2023March 1, 2023 The Kedge Anchor

Happy Friday Eve and Happy second day of March!

March 2023 Click here to download

March is the month shamrocks, leprechauns, pots of gold and luck. Well, I don’t believe in luck, leprechauns or pots pf gold but I do believe in the Lord and He wants to bless us.

So I created this desktop wallpaper for you to download with a calendar to help keep track of days and a verse to memorize.

Let me know if this is helpful, leave your comments below and please if you like this post or what you see here please subscribe and you can follow me on Facebook and Instagram.

art

Introducing – New Series: Design for Life

February 6, 2023February 17, 2023 The Kedge Anchor

Our Heavenly Father is the master artist. He is the creator of all things. Only God can create something out of nothing. He has a purpose and plan for everything He created, from the tiniest single cell sea creature that keeps the ecosystem alive to the Blue whale, the largest among it’s species, God created it and created it out of nothing. John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Everything we use to create art has already been created by God. The pigments used in paint come from the earth, paper is from the trees, all that God has created. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made”, Psalm 139:14. God created Adam from the earth, like Adam, we are created from dust with the breath of God in us giving us life. He is the potter and we are the clay and not one of us is the same. We are all unique, one of a kind, precious in His eyes.

God’s plan for us was to live in perfection here on earth until Adam and Eve fell to sin.
But before God created anything, He knew Adam and Eve would sin. He already had a plan in place. He had a plan of redemption and sent His Son to die and rise again on the third day. He provided a way for us to be free from the penalty of sin so that we could live with Him in perfection for all eternity.
Just as He created the universe and humans He had a plan and purpose, a design for life.

In this Design for Life series, we will see how the design principles of design can be applied to our journey walking with Jesus not just to our art. Design principles are guidelines to follow if you want to create visuals that are effective. God gives us principles and commands to live by to help set ourselves apart from the world. There is a scene in The Chosen where Jesus is sending out the twelve and gives them instructions as to what they can and cannot bring with them. Jesus wanted them to be distinguished from the cynic philosophers. So I had to ask myself, what am I doing to stand out, to be distinguished from the rest of the world, what am I doing to live in contrast to the world?

In this new series, here on The Kedge Anchor, I’ll give a short devotional how you can apply design principles to your walk with God then join me on Caryn’s Corner YouTube Channel where I will talk more about these Design for Life posts and teach you brush lettering. Lessons will include free downloadable worksheets to practice your brush lettering.

I am excited to share with you how these design principles can be applied to our walk with God. So please, subscribe, like and share these posts and be sure to visit Caryn’s Corner Btq on YouTube.

prayer, Uncategorized

Devotionals

January 28, 2023January 28, 2023 The Kedge Anchor

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.

art

Interpretations

January 9, 2023January 9, 2023 The Kedge Anchor

Art speaks to me. It can convey a feeling, an emotion be it happy or sad or a concept. It adds beauty and color to my surroundings. It can motivate me. But what speaks to me more is God’s word, the Bible. It adds more color and beauty than art. It shapes me, encourages me, leads me to knowledge of God and His ways.

There are many ways to interpret a painting or a piece of art. For example, a few years ago in an art history class I was taking, the teacher asked us to interpret a piece of art. It was a black and white checkerboard similar to the one pictured here. I remember exactly what it looked like. It was square with the black and white squares on the right and as the eye moved across the image, the black squares began to fade, becoming grayer and eventually white. I don’t remember the artist, barley remember the textbook it was in.

(colourbox.com)

So as I saw it, the black and white squares represented time and as the color began to fade, it was marking the passage of time. I don’t remember what the other student’s interpretations were, I just remember getting an “A.” Now that doesn’t mean I was right. There were other perspectives my fellow students had. There was no right or wrong way to interpret that piece of art.

However, the Bible has only one interpretation but many applications. The Gospel has one interpretation; Jesus came to die for us sinners, rose again on the third day, conquering death and saving us from eternal separation from God. We have to choose Him, we have to recognize our need for Him to save us. There are many words that can be used to convey salvation. But adding to God’s word, Deuteronomy 4:2 or His plan of salvation or to take away anything to make it fit our beliefs, is wrong. You can speak the Gospel with different words that mean the same thing but the meaning is still the same. And yet scripture, with one interpretation can be applied to many areas of our lives.

For example, James 1:9 , “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:” – KJV.

“Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. ” – NKJV

Two different versions saying the same thing. Digging deeper into the original Greek can help understanding this passage even more. The message is pretty clear, listen first, be slow to respond, don’t get angry so quickly, keep your mouth closed until the other person is finished speaking. And this passage can be applied to so many situations in our lives; in a marriage, communication is a big part of any relationship, parents, siblings, families. It can be applied to the workplace with your boss and co-workers. Anywhere there is talking between two people this verse has application. Get all the information first before you react or respond.

When it comes to scripture it’s important to understand, the who, what, why, where, how of who wrote it, what is the message God is speaking. Like communicating with others, God is communicating with us through His word. So out of respect to the men, authors who penned the books of the Bible we need to be objective when studying scripture and try to understand what the author, the prophet or apostle, ultimately God, is trying to communicate to us. Once we have the meaning we can apply it to many areas of our lives.

Now the artist who painted the simple black and white checker board only he or she knows what he or she was intending to communicate. With art we have the liberty to interpret it anyway we want, it can have any meaning we want. But, with scripture we have a responsibility to read and interpret it the way God intended.

Is there a piece of art that speaks to you? One that stirs your soul, strikes an emotions stirs up a memory? I love this image of the wave engulfing and crashing on the lighthouse. Imagine for a minute, being inside that lighthouse.

Image: Mathieu Rivrin/Solent News

What does it look like, sound like, feel like? The lighthouse is Jesus. The water, waves are life crashing around me. But I am safe inside the lighthouse, safe in the One who is in charge of those waves crashing on me. (“Even the winds and waves obey Him.” Matthew 8:23-27)

Is there a verse in the Bible that encourages you, comforts you, corrects you? Hebrews 6:19 – keeps me anchored in Hope. Comment what pieces of art speak to you, what are your favorite verses that speak to you, comfort you, encourage or correct you.

Uncategorized

Happy New Year 2023!!!!

January 7, 2023January 7, 2023 The Kedge Anchor

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

December 21, 2022December 21, 2022 The Kedge Anchor

©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!

Coloring Page

December 12, 2022 – Psalm 69:30

December 12, 2022December 12, 2022 The Kedge Anchor

Praise the name of God with song!!!!

December-12-2022 Download

salvation

“Every Good Gift and Every Perfect Gift…” James 1:17

December 8, 2022December 8, 2022 The Kedge Anchor

A few weeks back, we started the 30 Day Gratitude challenge in the book, The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving Thanks, where everyday we recorded five things for which we were grateful. I shocked myself that I consistent for 30 days. I still account for that which I am grateful but I’ll be honest I forget to write them down. But, that’s ok, God hears my prayers.

I am still reading this book. I am not finished. I am journaling what read and taking my time. I want this to stick. So often I read a book, and say “Oh that was a great book” and three days later I can’t remember a thing (insert eye roll). Another reason why I am still reading the book is I got hung up on a verse; James 1:17. Currently I am only studying the first half of this verse, “Every good gift and every perfect gift…” I was always taught to understand a verse, reading the surrounding verses will help.

The verse is sandwiched between verses of trials and temptations, it looks like this in my NKJV Study Bible:

Loving God Under Trials

12Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

16Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

Qualities Needed in Trials

19[c]So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (The Bible Hub).

I began to wonder about these gifts. When I hear the word gift, I think pretty package, “brown paper packages tied up with string,” something pleasant, something that brings joy. So I investigated.
EVERY – Greek word – πᾶσα – pasa, All, the whole, every kind of. Including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all, any, every, the whole. Hmm declension made me wonder more.

Forms of declension? Trials as gifts? hmm.

GOOD – Greek – δόσις dosis -A giving, gift, donation. From the base of didomi; a giving; by implication, a gift. to give (in various senses lit. or fig.)

PERFECT – Greek – τέλειον – teleion –From telos; complete; neuter completeness. Perfect here is not defined as blemish free or without flaw. Perfect is defined as COMPLETE. Teleion, from telos, Strong’s Greek: 5046. τέλειος (teleios). There was another word that came to my mind, maybe you’re thinking the same one. Τετέλεσται -Tetelesta Strong’s 5055: (a) I end, finish, (b) I fulfill, accomplish, (c) I pay. From telos; to end, i.e. Complete, execute, conclude, discharge.

“”IT IS FINISHED! ” John 19:30

The KJV New Testament Greek Lexicon

Strong’s Number: 5046 Browse Lexicon
Original WordWord Origint evleioßfrom (5056)
Transliterated Word TDNT
Entry Teleios 8:67,1161
Phonetic SpellingParts of Speechtel’-i-osAdjective

Definition brought to its end, finished wanting nothing necessary to completeness perfect that which is perfect consummate human integrity and virtue of men full grown, adult, of full age, mature

Bible Study Tools

Gift – Greek – δώρημα – dōrēma -A gift, bounty. From doreomai; a bestowment

I found these definitions for telos an ultimate end (Merriam Webster) and I like how Wordnick describes it the end of a goal oriented process. Wasn’t Jesus’ death on the cross a goal oriented process? He was the perfect sacrifice. Perfect in the sense He was without blemish, without sin, flawless and it was perfect in the sense His work on the cross is complete. His coming to earth born as a baby, fully human and fully God was the beginning of the Gospel. The gift of salvation was given to us when Jesus was born. Salvation for us was completed when Jesus died on the cross and rose again three days later. Jesus had one goal to complete, to pay the penalty of sin for us.

That’s probably why James nestled this verse in these verses of trials and temptations. We are going to be tempted and we at times may give (ok most likely) into temptation and sin. We will face trails and we likely fail. I know I will fail, we will fail if I, if we aren’t seeking God’s help in the midst of these trials and temptations. And there is nothing we can do to complete our salvation, there is nothing we can add to it. “nothing necessary to completeness.” What a gift!!!

And are we looking at trials as gifts? (ok I’ll save that for next week’s post because I do have some verses on that and this post is already long).

Ok so I am no Bible scholar. I may be waaay off in interpreting this. My head was spinning with all the information I was coming across and trying to organize it in my head, it was a lot to wrap my head around. I didn’t find any commentary that spoke to this, so if there are any scholars out there or if anyone has any constructive comments, please comment. I maybe missing something or not following something correctly. And right now it makes sense to me. So any insight, thoughts would be great.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Gratitude