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October 27, 2012 by Karin Leave a Comment

When Your Skin Just Doesn’t Fit (#27)

PROMISE #27 ~ YOU ARE A WONDERFUL CREATION

So, I thought I had outgrown this feeling.

This feeling of not quite fitting in, of sticking out like a sore thumb, or worse… of not being noticed at all.

I thought this was the rite of passage for a teenager.  When you finally leap beyond those teen years, shouldn’t you be good to go?  Confidence should come with age, right… and be evident in every situation.  I am an adult, after all.  I have a husband, six kids, dear friends… life is comfortable.

Then why does this old discomfort of not quite fitting in to my own skin rear its head again?

Maybe God is trying to tell me something.  Maybe it’s not at all about being comfortable in my own skin.  Maybe it’s quite the opposite.  Maybe I should feel painfully uncomfortable in my own skin, in order to fit better into His.  Maybe my skin is just in the way ~ a barrier to the soul underneath.  The soul in need of growth.

This soul that needs to rip at the seams to allow Light from an infinite source to shine through the torn edges.

All this to say, I am surrounded by people… I don’t know one soul and the feeling is making me squirm.  Like a Cinderella arriving at the ball, only to discover, the ball is really not a ball.  It’s t-shirts and jeans night… and I wore a gown.  Cringe.

Maybe it’s simply this… a nudge to remember the ones in the corner, the ones feeling awkward and alone… a reminder to mama what it feels like when my own kids want to crawl into a hole.

This reminder carries with it another message… one of awareness.

Awareness of who we really are… Whom we really matter to the most.

A reminder to embrace the place we are, ill-fitting skin and all.  Remembering that He knit us together precisely for this place, and the next.  With great care.  Beautifully me.  Beautifully you. 

A reflection of His light.

 

PROMISE #27 ~ You are a wonderful work of God.

 

Psalm 139:11-14

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.  For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Filed Under: Community, Faith, God's Promises Tagged With: community, faith, God's promises, when you feel out of place

October 26, 2012 by Karin 8 Comments

His Voice (#26) ~ for five minutes this Friday

PROMISE #26 – HIS VOICE

My voice… I have used it to calm, to soothe, to rebuke and reprimand.

My voice… I have used it to chastise, to love, to embrace with just a sound.

It’s when I find myself speechless that I wonder what my voice really says. 

I wonder whom my voice really represents?

I have spoken the spectrum from love to hate and I wonder why I use the beautiful gift so recklessly at times.

I hear the Voice now.

The only One that matters.

Not in a scream, a shout… but in a whisper.

Use it for Me.

Use the words I speak to you.

 

V eering from my own voice to His

O nly speaking the words that please His ears

I gnoring the ugly prompts from the darkest corners

C hoosing to whisper… or shout ~ only words of affirmation, of encouragement

E choing the sounds that began with His own voice…

Let there be light…

PROMISE #26 ~ His voice will shake the earth.

Hebrews 12:26-29

At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”  The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken – that is, created things – so that what cannot be shaken may remain.  Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Filed Under: Community, Faith, God's Promises, Mercy Tagged With: faith, God's promises, use your voice ~ for Him

October 19, 2012 by Karin Leave a Comment

She said so… (#19)

31 days of God's Promises

PROMISE #19 ~ HOPE

Hey girl.

Her sweet southern-ness flowed through the line.

It was dinnertime… one of those dinner times that everyone was actually sitting down.  All six squirmy kids and two weary wardens.

 I got your book.

I glanced at my husband and whispered her name.  He nodded, touching my arm…

 Go, talk to her.

I slid onto the corner chair, this attempt to hide from the sadness.  My voice instantly took on the familiar cadence of what seemed a lifetime ago.  The tune of the south rolling from my lips came easily as I talked with my dear friend.

Have you had a chance to look at it?  It’s really great… it really makes me hopeful… gets me almost excited.  You know, for when… well, someday.

I had sent her Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven.  I poured through it the year before.  I don’t remember exactly what brought me to reading it, but through the rearview… the time was closer than it appeared.

I haven’t read it yet, but my honey has already picked it up.  He loves it.  I’m going to read it as soon as I get a chance.

We talked a while.  At first, about all things normal.  Kids.  Husbands.  The used-to-be’s.  The remember-when’s.  We laughed.  We had always laughed… the kind that grips your side and makes you think life will always feel this good.

We talked about God.  The past couple of years… the years she wore pink and fought hard… these years we talked about Him more than anything else.  Funny, in 20 years, we had never really talked about Him at all.  Now, His name would not stay long from our lips.

 I just want you to know…

She choked the words, this woman who defined strength and emotional control (except for when she fought with her dear sister, every bit as southern and stubborn as she).

 I just want you to know… you’ve been a great friend to me.

My brimming tears broke their barrier and flowed.

You’ve always been there for me, supported me, even though we have lived far apart.  I just want you to know, I am grateful for you.  For your friendship.  I love you.

My own words caught in my throat.  This, the woman I had known half of her life… the one who split my sides with humor… the one who had been my cohort in the madness of twenty-something.  She just wasn’t one to spill her verbal love out, so seriously.

I knew.  I knew what it meant.

I saw her a few more times.  I saw the illness take her strength.  Her eyes never lost their sparkle.  In fact, towards the end… I saw a very new light in them.

She never did read the book Heaven.  She went to see it first hand.

I picked up my pen (rather, my keyboard) again, after she went.  The plan was not to write of sadness, but of hope.  Of friendship.  Of the travels with fellow sojourners.  Sisters of the faith.  This faith that came to meet me in my adulthood… the faith that had been barely visible in my youth.

I think about my girl every day.  The site of a bird, the wings of a dragonfly… they were her favorite… mostly I remember her words.

The thing I have learned, Karin, the thing I know now… He is always here.  No matter how bad the news is… it will always be ok.  No matter when the hope I have is dashed with more bad news… it will always be ok.  Even when I die… it will always be ok.

I am a writer of words.  I watch my life through the words I write.  I re-live the moments and sort them like my 10 baskets of laundry.  I see Him in the details.  The detail of every word, of every community, of every friendship.  All for His glory.  It will always be ok.

She said so.

He says so.

 

PROMISE #19 ~ God promises us hope.

 

Hebrews 10:22-24

let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

 

Karin Madden

 

 

Filed Under: Community, Faith, Friendship, God's Promises, Hope, Together Tagged With: faith, friendship, God's promises, hope in the face of sadness

October 14, 2012 by Karin Leave a Comment

Sitting on the fence (#14)

PROMISE #14 ~ HE IS THE ROCK 

Sitting on the fence.

It’s a great way to see one side… and the other.  It’s a nice place to be.  Safely undecided.  Above the radar.

I can see the black pavement on one side.  Smooth for the most part, a few potholes, a blur of masses mingling in and out of life’s messes.

Sitting on the fence.  It’s pretty safe here.  If I just hold still.

The other side of the fence…the green pasture.  It beckons.  But, what if the grass gnarls under the blistering sun?  What if I go to the field and there is no one to greet me there?  What if I jump from my fence into the dewy grass… only to find I am alone and the field does not hold all that it promises.

I glance back to the pavement.  I know the pavement.  It is not particularly fulfilling.  It is not filled with immeasurable joy.  It is a bit humdrum.  Safe.  Comfortable.  But, there has to be more.  Is it possible that the answer might lie on the other side?

I have spent much of my life on the fence.  It has been said that no decision is a NO decision.

Is it perhaps time to say YES?

Yes to invisible promises… yes to gentle nudging… yes to a new place, a new direction, a new life.

What if I just say yes?  What if I leap, no matter how my soul trembles?  What if I jump from this safe fence that sits above indecision, clinging to fear of rejection, safe in the arms of obscurity?  What if I just jump?

I glimpse at the outlined souls in the field… arm in arm.  Strength in numbers.  The ones who have boldly gone there, beyond the fence, beyond the doubt… no matter the cost.  I recognize a few of the faces, some are not yet known to me… though they appear familiar ~ a family resemblance.  The smiles I know… an enveloping warmth… they draw me in, beckoning me… encouraging me.  This is what those in the field do… they do this for one another… they do this for ones lost on the pavement.  They call… I see sisters (and I thank God for them ~ you know who you are…), brothers… waiting.  Building the tribe… the family… strength in service to Him.

The truth is… the fence is temporary.  Eventually it will rot away… fade into a distant memory.  Passage of time will swallow the fence… and I will find myself here.  Somewhere in the middle of nowhere.  Missing the adventure… the journey.

The truth is… when the fence disappears, when there is no longer a divide… there will be only One place.  One place of Life.  The rest will all fade away…

The truth is… He has held true to every promise from the birth of promise itself.  The field awaits.  The ground is sure… The Rock is solid.

The fence is no place to stay.

Are you sitting on the fence?

What is keeping you there?

Will you take the leap of faith?  Just say…

Yes

 

PROMISE #14 ~ God is the rock.

 

Psalm 62:1-3

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.  How long will you assault a man?  Would all of you throw him down – this leaning wall, this tottering fence?

Filed Under: Brothers and Sisters, Community, Faith, Family, God's Promises, Hope, Together Tagged With: faith, God's promises, sitting on the fence in faith

October 12, 2012 by Karin 12 Comments

Race (for 5 minutes this Friday) (#12)

PROMISE #12 ~ THE CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Race.

My mind races with thoughts of time, and the thoughts of time wasted.  Time well spent.  Time unrecoverable.

I race to finish… every little thing I have started.

I hear a voice whisper… The only Voice.

Be still

I race to be still.  The promptings overwhelm.

Be still in Him… race only to please Him… race only to love well… race only to serve… race only to become just like Him.

In the rest…

Be still

in the RACE…

R emember why you are here… and if you don’t know… ask Him

A nchor your race in His will… see the time slow to fit all of His plans

C all to those who are racing in circles… band together to focus on the center… Up.

E mbrace the journey, the race… finish it well.

 

PROMISE #12 ~ God promises the crown of righteousness.

 

2 Timothy 4:7-8

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Brothers and Sisters, Community, Faith, God's Promises, Perseverance, Together Tagged With: faith, finish well, five minute friday, race to God

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Meet Karin

Hi! My name is Karin Madden. Writer. Warrior wife. Mom of six pack. Homeschooler. German-blooded southerner. Welcome to the place where I explore what it means to grow stronger - spirit, soul, and body. I write to inspire and encourage - to remind you we are not alone. By being bold with grace and speaking truth in love, we can become who we are meant to be. I'm glad you are here.

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