The Gathering Place Where Family Matters

I always seek to be careful what I share from Karen’s Notes. She wrote things to herself that I know she would not want me to share. But this is something that I know she wouldn’t mind me passing along to you. I found this a few months ago as I was reading from her Bible. It’s a small postcard published by Warner Press in 1988. I gave it to her following the death of our little boy, Jeffrey.

I want to do something different this week. I am holding her Bible. I’ve discovered some things that I haven’t looked at in a long time. When you consider the personality that Karen had and her determination not to hang onto things no longer needed, you’ll sense the importance of what I discovered she not only kept, but kept in her Bible. There she would see these things often, read them again, and embrace them. I’ll share this with you in just a second. Think of this verse first.

Karen and I always prayed about her speaking engagements. I was genuinely interested in not only where she had been invited but also what she’d be speaking about. She only spoke to ladies’ groups. But I also realize that as I read her notes, there are some good encouragements to not only ladies but to men as well. You can imagine my surprise when she told me the title of her seminar was going to be “Your Church Needs to Have Fun!”

I don’t know where this event took place, but I am holding the notes she used. Karen used an acrostic spelling out the word “FUN.” Last week I shared with you that F stood for “Faith.” Obviously every local church will be greatly blessed when the believers there demonstrate faith.

Today we move to the letter U

Sometimes at the top of Karen’s handwritten notes she would list the date and place of her seminar presentation. She didn’t on this one. However, I am holding in my hands the typical small sheet of paper employing red ink for the outline and blue ink for the notes (I wonder where she would have gotten such an idea?). Wherever she was speaking, she was going to surely catch their attention with the title about every church and the word fun. Actually, this was going to be an acrostic FUN.